Up next: a foray into organic foods and maybe a vineyard

The new company is an ambitious thrust into contract farming — perhaps the emerging big story in Indian agriculture — and will buy fruit and vegetables from chosen farmers for sale in retail outlets in Britain, initially.

‘‘It’s our first-ever investment in agriculture,’’ says Sir Evelyn’s New Yorker wife Lady Lynn, co-chair of Field Fresh.

When nudged Sir Evelyn, who has interests in banking, media, and is on the board of the London School of Economics, does open out about wine. It’s his other great love, other than making money. He’s tried Indian wine: ‘‘It was a very good light, white wine. Akin to an Italian wine’’.

The Rothschilds own vineyards in France, California and Chile. The business is run by a cousin of Sir Evelyn’s and is a trifle too upper-end to bother with India. ‘‘Indian wines are somewhere there in the little league,’’ says Sir Evelyn, trying not to sound dismissive, ‘‘but the wine industry is changing so much. You now get wine from countries that you never did 20 years ago. Spain, South Africa, New Zealand … even Brazilian wine. It’s all related to palate.’’

More than wines, it’s grapes the de Rothschilds are keen on. ‘‘As far as I know, India is the world’s second-largest exporter of (table) grapes, second only to Chile,’’ says Sir Evelyn. While a Chile-style jump up the value chain — from table grapes to wine grapes to well-received wines — may be some way off, Field Fresh Foods is looking to sell Indian grapes abroad. ‘‘You have good seedless grapes, but you need other varieties’’.

Isn’t agriculture an unorthodox FDI destination? Not to Lady Lynn, Sunil Mittal’s co-chair on the Field Fresh board, ‘‘The raw potential was obvious. The Pepsi experience was there. Its contract farming yields for tomato are about 50 tonnes an acre, close to the highest in the world’’.

Agriculture is, of course, a thrust area of the Manmohan Singh government. What changes in the laws would the de Rothschilds suggest? ‘‘We’re not here to suggest policies,’’ is Lady Lynn’s politically-correct answer, ‘‘we’re here to work with the farmer as a partner and with the government on WTO farm subsidy negotiations.’’ On their wish list are ‘‘better infrastructure, investment in roads and power and a stable exchange rate’’. That last clause is crucial for a venture that plans to export half its produce.

The big challenge will be certification. Lady Lynn’s field work included a briefing at Selfridge’s, the London store that hosted an ‘‘India Month’’ two years ago.

‘‘I met the lady who brought in the Indian fruits and vegetables for the ‘India Month’,’’ she says, ‘‘and found out about the customs checks, spot checks, checks for pests, for chemicals. They are incredibly vigilant. One problem with one sample and they won’t allow the whole consignment to come in.’’

For organic foods — ‘‘It’s a $4 billion market in Britain’’ — regulation is even tougher. The de Rothschilds’ research tells them 70 per cent of food produced in India is chemical-free, making it an ideal outsourcing centre, as it were, for the high-margin organic food business.

Yet organic foods is phase II for Lady Lynn, more later than now. As her husband puts it, it’s ‘‘One step at a time’’.