§1What this business is

Strawberries are stored cold, washed and pulped. The pulp is cooked with sugar in a steam kettle, homogenised, held in an insulated tank and filled on a small bottling line. Crush is a thick fruit syrup that shops and homes dilute or pour over ice cream and shakes. The DPR is written as a new line in an existing fruit unit.

Capacity: The Project at a Glance states 150 MT a year; the capacity section states 100 tonnes a year or 350 kg of raw strawberry a day. 300 days of 8–10 hours, at 70%, 80% and 90% of capacity in years 2–4. Raw strawberry needed: 233, 266 and 300 kg a day.

§2Is it right for you?

Who it is for

A fruit processor or growers' group in a strawberry pocket such as Mahabaleshwar, parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana or Meghalaya.

Who it is not for

Someone who would depend on berries trucked in from another state.

Advantages

  • Uses small and soft berries that cannot be sold fresh
  • Crush keeps for months, unlike fresh strawberries
  • Juice shops, ice-cream parlours and bakeries buy it year-round
  • Same line can make other fruit crushes and squashes

Drawbacks

  • Strawberries are grown in few pockets and only in winter
  • Fresh berries spoil within a day or two
  • The DPR's cost and capacity figures do not agree with each other
  • Natural colour fades in storage

Skills you need

  • Quick cold handling of fresh berries
  • Cooking to the right Brix without losing colour
  • Hygienic bottling
  • Selling to juice shops, parlours and distributors

Why difficulty 3/5: Simple process, but the fruit is highly perishable and very seasonal.

§3Market

Who buys

  • Juice shops, ice-cream parlours and cafés
  • Bakeries and dessert makers
  • Households through kirana and supermarkets

How it sells

  • Food-service and bakery-ingredient distributors
  • Tourist-market shops in strawberry areas
  • Online marketplaces

Good to know

  • The DPR assumes an average selling price of ₹145 a kg.

§4Raw material & machinery

ItemQtyCost
Cold store (2 HP)1₹3.5 lakh
Washer, 40 kg/hr (2 HP)1₹1.6 lakh
Fruit pulper/extractor, 40 kg/hr (3 HP)1₹2.2 lakh
Steam kettle (thermic fluid), 300 litres/batch (1.5 HP)1₹1.8 lakh
Inline homogeniser, 500 litres/hr (2 HP)1₹1.8 lakh
Insulated crush storage tank, 500 litres (1.5 HP)1₹1.5 lakh
Bottling line — washing, filling and capping units (2 HP)1₹1.45 lakh

From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Strawberry Crush

  • Fresh strawberries₹60 a kg in the DPR; 233–300 kg a day
  • Sugar₹32 a kg in the DPR
  • Bottles, caps and labelspacking material

From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Strawberry Crush

§5Licences & registration

  1. Udyam registration
  2. GST registration
  3. FSSAI licence or registration
  4. Trade licence or factory permission from the local body
  5. Legal Metrology registration for packaged goods

We can do this registration for you

Start it in your state

Pick your state: today’s cost, central + state subsidy, raw material, land and help, on one page.

§6Schemes & subsidies

At this size the project fits PMFME (35% credit-linked grant, up to ₹10 lakh) or PMEGP (manufacturing up to ₹50 lakh) — choose one subsidy; MUDRA or a CGTMSE-backed loan can cover the working capital.

§7Money

How the investment is worked out: Extra built-up area ₹4.44 L + plant and machinery ₹13.85 L + utilities ₹2.2 L + other fixed assets ₹0.9 L + pre-operative ₹0.90 L + contingencies ₹1.00 L + working capital margin ₹0.25 L = ₹23.54 L, the total printed in the Project at a Glance. The DPR is inconsistent here: its Project at a Glance lists the margin as ₹5.57 L, and its project-cost table prints a total of ₹28.54 L for the same lines.

Working capital: Working capital gap ₹22.30 L, ₹25.48 L and ₹32.76 L in years 2–4; margin money (25%) ₹5.57 L, ₹6.37 L and ₹8.19 L; bank finance ₹16.72 L, ₹19.11 L and ₹24.57 L.

Year not printed on the DPR (the PMFME scheme began in 2020) — check current machinery prices.

How to prepare a loan file

§8Export potential

Export council / board: APEDA

  • The DPR prints no HS code — look up the exact code in the DGFT ITC-HS schedule before you quote to a foreign buyer.

§9Risks — where people fail

  • Berry spoilage before processing
  • Colour and flavour loss in the bottle
  • Weather damage to the short crop
  • Budget overrun, since the DPR's totals are inconsistent

§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan

A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.

  1. Days 1–30: Visit a working strawberry crush unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
  2. Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (Udyam registration, GST registration), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
  3. 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 Strawberry Crush?

DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.

Get a DPR / loan file made

Sources

  1. NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Strawberry Crush

Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.