Tropical fruits are harvested from woody plants (avocado, mango, orange) but also from herbaceous plants (banana, papaya) and vines (passion fruit). Tropical fruits, in most cases, are sold fresh, and off-grade fruit is processed. Most tropical fruits are highly perishable, and significant development has taken place to process selected fruits into dried products, juices and purees. Bananas such as plantains are also often used as a starch staple in Africa, Asia and Latin America and not as a dessert fruit. The fruit juice industry is a comparative young sector. While markets in China, India and Eastern Europe are still growing today, the Western markets of Europe and North America are now experiencing cutthroat competition. In these saturated markets, niche products such as those made from tropical fruits or so-called superfruits, premium juices (NFC- not from concentrate), puree, organic juices or products focusing on important. If you look around the beverage section of a supermarket these days, you will discover a fascinating variety of fruit and vegetable juices. The aseptic fruit concentrates are prepared after evaporation of water from fruit juices. These maintain quality, prolonged shelf life and optimize the transport and storage cost. The plant facility offers a wider range of final juice products for distribution such as fruit juice concentrates either packed in bulk or for consumer use, blended juices, both concentrated and ready for consumption, along with single strength fruit juices packaged in a wide variety of commercial containers. There has been a remarkable growth in the demand for the juice concentrates due to the increasing popularity of new non-alcoholic and alcoholic fruit drink products, ice cream, yoghurt and baby food etc. The fruit & vegetable syrups or concentrates are used as flavors in these products. The soft drink market is also creating huge demand for the concentrates. The move away from alcoholic drinks and the relative inconvenience of hot drinks has resulted in a major shift to packaged soft drinks of all flavors. Market Survey Fruit Beverages In volume terms, the total Indian market for fruit juices and related products, such as nectars squashes, concentrates and fruit drinks, is estimated at equivalent of 500 mn cases. Of this, only 10% is accounted for by packaged products and the rest is sold loose. Of the packaged products, 85% is made up of juices and nectars. The market for branded fruit-based drinks (Maaza, Frooti, Slice and others), nectar drinks (Real and Tropicana) and others is placed at Rs 8 bn. Of this Rs 6 bn is the market for fruit-based drinks and nearly Rs 2 bn is for fruit nectars. Besides, there is a large segment of kiosk vendors, especially in the urban areas, whose size is estimated at between Rs 8 and Rs 10 bn. The overall market for fruit juices of all types would thus be around Rs 18 bn. People, are now increasingly going in for fresh fruit juices vending from kiosk fountains which produce instant juices from fresh fruits in the presence of the consumer as well as bottled juices. It could be due to the non-availability of hygienically produced and well-preserved products or due to change in lifestyle of the consumer segment. The canned juice segment covered brands like NAFED, Noga, Midland, Gold Coin and Druk. These were fruit juices or nectars - not drinks. These did not make a mark in the market for whatever reasons: high price, unattractive packaging, lack of right promotion program. There is no general acceptance of the product forms in the fruit drinks market. The consumer is basically concerned that it is a real fruit juice and not a synthetically constituted product. Among the fruit juices are Pepsi's Tropicana nectar, Dabur's Real and fruit drinks Frooti and Slice. All these are real, reconstituted drinks from fruit pulps or concentrates. The fruit drinks differ in pulp content: the juices have over 85%, nectars 20% to 85% and fruit drinks less than 20% pulp. The leading fruit juice brands, besides Real and Tropicana, are Frooti, Onjus and Jumpin. The fruit drinks are based on oranges, mangoes, pineapples, grapes, apples, guava and tomato. Enkay Texofood Industries entered the market with what is claimed as 100% natural orange juice in India with Onjus brand. Enkay happens to be the largest Indian exporter of fruit juices, pulp and concentrates to Europe and North America, with clients such as Unilever, Coke, Pepsi and Nestle. The company's plants near Vapi in Gujarat have been producing daily 80,000 packs of 250 ml and 70,000 packs of one litre of Onjus. The emerging concept of juice bars and the recent trend of health awareness among the population have together contributed towards making the consumption of juices much more popular than before in India. A number of companies are trying to capture the untapped segment of the market aimed at children. The rural market in India has huge growth potential in this regard. With the availability of a wide range of options, Indian consumers have become much more brand conscious these days. Consequently, the domestic juice market has also witnessed the emergence of a number of branded players. Current trends suggest that the domestic players are competing well with the multinational companies. Entry of smaller brands is also a very good sign for the overall juice market in India: - The juices category was valued at INR 18,949.2m ($459.2m) in 2008, representing a CAGR of 20% since 2003. - By the end of 2013, the juices category will be worth INR 29,217.6m ($708m), with an expected CAGR of 9% between 2008 and 2013. - The juices market volume totaled 366.4 million liters in 2008, representing a CAGR of 19.1% since 2003. - By the end of 2013, the juices market will total 588.7 million liters, with an expected CAGR of 9.9% between 2008 and 2013. The juices market was led by fruit drink (0-29% juice) (representing 72.2% of the total value) followed by nectar (30%-99% juice) and 100% fruit juice (from concentrate), with a 23.5% and 3.8% market share, respectively. Vegetable juice accounts for the remaining 0.5% share. The fruit juice industry has made good progress in India. According to trade sources, the total market for fruit drinks & nectars has reportedly shown a growth rate of 10 -15% per annum in the past. The Indian market for fruit juices has reported an annual growth of 25-30%. The new sector which has potential to be explored is combination of various products like fruit and milk combination, fruit-yogurt drinks that are more natural & nutritious drinks. Few Indian Major Players are as under Atash Industries (India) Ltd. Dabur Foods Ltd. Enkay Texofood Inds. Ltd. Enkay Texofood Inds. Ltd. Goa Fruit Specialities Ltd. Indusmin Foods Ltd. Jain Processed Foods Pvt. Ltd. Kesar Greenfield International Ltd. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd. Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetables Pvt. Ltd. Nadukkara Agro Processing Co. Ltd. Rasdhara Agro Exports Ltd. Reil Products Ltd. Seabuckthorn Indage Ltd. Surya Fresh Foods Ltd. Tricom Fruit Products Ltd. Tunip Agro Ltd. Vividh Agro Processors Ltd.