The origin of food preservation dates back to the prehistoric times, where cave dwellers froze their hunted meat in ice to preserve its natural taste and texture. This ancient art and survival skill of preserving foods, especially through freezing, has constantly been ingrained in humans since ages, thereby escalating the demand for healthy convenience foods. Today, the frozen fruits & vegetables market in India is making great strides, as people have realized the health benefits involved with these products as opposed to fresh produce. You read it right! Many researches have proven that frozen fruits & vegetables contain as many vitamins and sometimes even more than the fresh produce. Besides, they hold the best of beneficial plant compounds that provide protection against diseases. Clearly, these frozen fruits & vegetables stand as a viable alternative to produce that has been picked, refrigerated, transported, stored in a warehouse and then delivered at the grocery store for sale. On the other hand, people can enjoy their favourite fruit or vegetable during anytime of the year by shifting to frozen foods, while promoting less spoilage and wastage.

Delving into the stories of trading companies that deal with exports of these frozen foods, we can observe that not many of them have truly mastered the art of delivering top-notch quality products to clients. Especially in this sensitive market wherein people directly consume the products, the players ought to be more diligent in adhering to quality norms and many more parameters, thereby not shipping bad quality products by mere oversight. This is indeed the very mantra of MDA Agrocot Private Limited, a pioneering company in the frozen foods segment offering top-notch, safe and cost-effective food ingredients to the world. With a wide range of products in its portfolio – Fruit Pulps, Individual Quick Freezing (IQF) Fruits & Vegetables, Grains and Soya along with Yarn, MDA Agrocot has not only engraved its name in the frozen foods space, but also the spinning industry.

MDA Agrocot currently outclasses as a trading company involved in the export of frozen food ingredients to US, Canada, Europe, Russia and Gulf, with lesser focus on domestic trading. While trading predominantly on job-work basis, the company has also been pursuing clear trading, wherein it directly sells the purchased goods to the market. But now, the situations are gradually reversing! It has recently established its sister company – Taksh Cold Chain, which will be operational very soon solely for manufacturing frozen fruits & vegetables.

Reigning Supreme, Always!
Today, clients greatly prefer MDA Agrocot for its excellence in service delivery. In fact, the company has been sailing beyond the frontiers of mere trading to captivate the hearts of its clients. Someone once beautifully quoted ~ “Earn trust and then take care of the rest”. That’s exactly what this Amravati-based firm has always been excelling at! For instance, regardless of the presence of fierce competition in European markets, clients vividly prefer MDA Agrocot for its unparalleled service delivery even when its products are highly priced than the rest.

Adding to this forte is its deep-rooted commitment to clients. What happens at the backend of agro products trading is that MDA Agrocot accepts orders from clients way before the commencement of actual production. The orders are accepted for a long duration right from the start of the season until client requires the produce, as per prefixed costs. The biggest problem here lies in maintaining the production cost, which varies with unpredictable weather conditions, always lesser than the prefixed order cost. It is here MDA Agrocot surpasses its competitors by pursuing production at prefixed order costs even after knowing they spiked-up due to bad weather conditions, with emphasis on building long-term relationships with the clients.

The third most imperative forte of the company is its customer support services! Most of its peers in the market usually withdraw themselves at times of crises without assisting clients or providing them outright compensation. Standing in stark contrast to these companies is MDA Agrocot, which stringently addresses the clients’ concerns and resolves them on time. Aditya Bhoot (Director, MDA Agrocot & Partner, Taksh Cold Chain), articulates, “We always ensure to ship only quality products to our clients. If clients are not satisfied with the product, we ascertain to monetarily compensate them for that product/shipment or replace them with new ones”.

Rigorous Market Study
Achieving the aforementioned aspects of service delivery, commitment and customer support is no mean feat, especially in today’s highly competitive market. MDA Agrocot believes its biggest strength to be extensive

market study before purchasing fruits and vegetable from its suppliers. Its team ensures to regularly visit the farms, explore changing weather conditions, and analyze & predict the productivity of produce in advance. In fact, agricultural returns still remain to be cyclical in nature – a few years of good returns followed by a few years of bad returns. For example, most farmers tend to blindly follow someone else’s idea of a crop for the first year (abundant crops – prices crash), then realize their mistake and change the crop in the second year (less abundant crops – high prices), change the crop again in third year (less abundant crops – high prices), and eventually try the first crop again (abundant crops – prices crash). Yet, the company profoundly understands this cyclic nature of returns and accordingly invests only in the most productive produce.

Unswerving Dedication towards Quality
Further supporting its operations is its rich know-how in choosing the right locations that are abundant in production as well as the right suppliers in those locations. Aditya adds, “Before signing a contract with the supplier, I and the Quality Head (food technologist) personally visit the supplier’s plant and execute a complete audit oriented on raw materials used, hygiene followed, quality of processing machines & water deployed, standards of warehouses, knowledge levels of labour, and many more parameters”. Likewise, every supplier has to qualify in every single parameter listed in its 10-page audit, and only then can he become MDA Agrocot’s esteemed supplier. Besides, the suppliers ought to have procured a set of mandatory certifications, renew them on a timely basis, and most importantly, follow them during every single phase of production.

MDA Agrocot has proved its worth to clients by not just compensating them with new products at times of crises, but resolving their concerns on time without any delay or hesitation

This is not just a one-time process at MDA Agrocot! Even post signing contract with the supplier, the company appoints another Quality Control Inspector at the supplier’s plant to monitor the entire process round the clock. This person’s job is to meticulously check if every standard is being followed, every carton is packaged according to the norms, and share a detailed report with the company every single day till the production process terminates. Further, Aditya ensures that each product is tested not only at the in-house laboratory, but at third-party international laboratories too and also transported at temperatures like -18 to -20o C and nothing higher than that. That’s the kind of dedication MDA Agrocot imparts towards maintaining quality! Today, all its products are certified by ISO 9001:2015, TUV, AIB International, and many other international organizations.

At the Acme of Customer Support!
In spite of being extra diligent at every phase of production, minor mistakes might creep-in. One such scenario happened when even after MDA Agrocot stringently tested and shipped 80 containers of Alphonso mango pulp to a client in Poland during the month of December. When the shipments reached their premise in January, the client started using the contents of shipments and everything went fine till the 20th container. But to client’s surprise, the 21st container comprised of tiny black particles in it. Feeling devastated, the client contacted MDA Agrocot to inform about the situation and ask for a monetary compensation or exchange. Yet, Aditya was confident about his products and hence insisted the client to open the next container and check its content. Sadly, even the second container had those same tiny black particles in it. Because of further insistence, the client checked the third container too and it was found to be fine. In fact, the rest of the containers also turned out to be fine.

It is here MDA Agrocot has proved its worth to the client by not just compensating them with new containers during the next shipment, but resolving their concerns on time without any delay or hesitation. In fact, the client didn’t even ask for the compensation by understanding the situation and valuing their long-term relationship with the company. This is the level of trust and bonding it has been strongly building with clients since inception.

Inception Story
Wondering how this inspirational journey of MDA Agrocot began? When Aditya came back to India in 2011 after pursuing his Masters from Cleveland State University, US, his brother Darshan was engaged in international trading across textiles industry along with varied edible oils. The brothers then started MDA Agrocot with exports of fresh fruits & vegetables and continued the same for two long years. Meanwhile, when the duo attended various international trade fairs to comprehend the nuances of food industry, they realized the increasing significance of frozen foods sector and forayed into it with their first export to Germany in 2014. Regardless of initial hurdles and few second thoughts about their new frozen foods business, they sailed ahead with perseverance, confidence and most importantly, unrivalled cooperation from their clients. They also plunged into the fruit pulp business on clients’ demand and started delivering them both products together.

"Supporting MDA Agrocot’s operations is its rich know-how in choosing the right locations that are abundant in production, as well as the right suppliers in those locations"

So far, MDA Agrocot has been experiencing a tectonic growth in its exports! With just 10 containers in its first year of frozen food exports, the company has grown to export around 180 containers this year. It has various plans on the cards, but chiefly to kick-start its manufacturing operations at Taksh Cold Chain as early as possible and target clients who are in the lookout for traders with manufacturing capabilities.

Aditya Bhoot, Director
Aditya is a well-versed entrepreneur and business leader revolutionizing the export market of India for frozen foods through his brainchild – MDA Agrocot.

Quick Facts:
• Inception Year: 2011
• Location: Amravati
• Products: Fruit Pulps, IQF Fruits & Vegetables, Grains, Soya & Yarn.

MDA Agrocot in Spotlight:
• Currently outclasses as a trading company involved in exports of frozen food ingredients to US, Canada, Europe, Russia & Gulf.
• Recently established its sister company – Taksh Cold Chain, which will be operational very soon solely for manufacturing its frozen fruits & vegetables.
• Today, clients greatly prefer MDA Agrocot for its excellence in service delivery, deep-rooted commitment and customer support par excellence.
• MDA Agrocot believes its biggest strength to be extensive market study before purchasing fruits and vegetable from its suppliers.
• Each product is tested not only at the in-house laboratory, but at third-party international laboratories too.
• With just 10 containers in its first year of frozen food exports, the company has grown to export around 180 containers this year