§1What this business is
Sapota is a tropical fruit tree that likes a warm, humid climate; coastal areas suit it best and it grows up to 1,200 m. The main belts are in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal. Grafted plants are usually set at the start of the rains. The tree starts bearing from the third year, but paying yields come from the fifth year. There are two harvest seasons, January–February and May–June. Banana, papaya, pineapple or vegetables are grown between the rows in the first four years. Fruit is hand-picked, graded into large, medium and small, and packed in 10 kg cardboard boxes with rice straw padding.
Capacity: One acre with 160 plants. Yield rises from 4.0 tonnes an acre in the fifth year to 8.0 tonnes in the 8th year and is steady after that.
§2Is it right for you?
Who it is for
A farmer in a warm coastal or humid belt with own land, who can live on inter-crops for four years.
Who it is not for
Anyone who needs the money back quickly, or farms in a dry, cold area.
Advantages
- Two harvest seasons a year
- Suits coastal areas where many fruit crops do poorly
- Many crops can be grown between the rows in the first four years
- Sweet fruit with steady home demand
Drawbacks
- Longest payback among the fruit models — 12.06 years in the report
- Fruit keeps only 7–8 days under ordinary conditions
- The farmer gets around 35% of the wholesale price in the secondary market
- Fruit drop is a serious problem
Skills you need
- Planting and care of grafts
- Growth-regulator sprays against fruit drop
- Judging maturity and hand-picking
- Grading and box packing with padding
Why difficulty 3/5: Slow to pay back and the fruit spoils within a week.
§3Market
Who buys
- Wholesalers and commission agents
- Fruit retailers in cities
- Sweet, halwa and milk-shake makers
How it sells
- Bamboo baskets lined with banana leaves to the local market
- Cardboard boxes of 10 kg or wooden boxes by truck to cities
Good to know
- The model values sapota at ₹10 a kg.
- The report says the farmer realises around 35% of the wholesale price in the secondary market.
§4Raw material & machinery
| Item | Qty | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Tube well with submersible pump | — | ₹50,000 |
| Drip irrigation system with fertigation equipment | for 1 acre | ₹20,000 |
| Store and pump house | — | ₹30,000 |
| Labour shed | — | ₹5,000 |
| Farm implements | — | ₹10,000 |
| Fencing | — | ₹29,600 |
From: National Horticulture Board model bankable project — Sapota
- Planting material — grafted sapota plants160 plants an acre at ₹25 a plant
- Manures and fertilisersfirst-year provision in the model
- Insecticides and pesticidesfirst-year provision in the model
From: National Horticulture Board model bankable project — Sapota
§5Licences & registration
- No licence is needed to grow fruit on your own or leased farm land
- Land ownership or registered lease papers (banks and subsidy offices ask for them)
- Permission for a new borewell where the state groundwater authority requires it
- For export: Import Export Code, APEDA registration and a phytosanitary certificate
Start it in your state
Pick your state: today’s cost, central + state subsidy, raw material, land and help, on one page.
§6Schemes & subsidies
The model assumes the farmer puts in ₹87,500, a capital subsidy of ₹35,000 and a bank term loan of ₹52,500 at 12% interest on the ₹1,75,000 cost. Today NHB's open-field scheme is for orchards above 2 hectares, leaves out land cost and needs a bank term loan; for a one-acre orchard ask the district horticulture office about state schemes.
§7Money
How the investment is worked out: One-acre model; the cost of land is not included. Cultivation expenses ₹26,400 (planting material ₹4,000, manures and fertilisers ₹11,000, insecticides and pesticides ₹3,250, labour ₹4,550, power ₹3,600) + irrigation ₹50,000 (tube well with submersible pump ₹50,000) + drip irrigation system ₹20,000 + infrastructure ₹45,000 (store and pump house ₹30,000, labour shed ₹5,000, farm implements ₹10,000) + land development ₹33,600 (land levelling ₹4,000, fencing ₹29,600) = ₹1,75,000.
Working capital: First-year cultivation expenses of ₹26,400 are inside the project cost. Inter-crops in the first four years are needed to make the project viable, says the report.
Year not printed on the report. It costs labour at ₹70 a man-day, so these are old prices — planting material, labour, borewell and drip costs are much higher now.
§8Export potential
Confirm the HS code in the DGFT ITC(HS) lookup before you export
Export council / board: APEDA
- Exports were only 0.2% of production in 2001-02, says the report.
- In 2001-02 UAE took 567.86 tonnes and Saudi Arabia 247.92 tonnes.
§9Risks — where people fail
- Fruit drop cutting the crop
- Fruit spoiling before sale
- Middlemen keeping most of the price
- Break-even is tight — fixed cost is 86% of gross sales in the report
§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan
A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.
- Days 1–30: Visit a working sapota (chiku) orchard unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
- Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (No licence is needed to grow fruit on your own or leased farm land, Land ownership or registered lease papers (banks and subsidy offices ask for them)), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
- Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.
§11Who to connect with
§12Watch
There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.
Want to start Sapota (Chiku) Orchard?
DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.
¶Sources
Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.