About ICHIGO®
A registered Indian trademark of M2labo (Japan), brought to India through the Vegibus shared cold-chain.
The name
Ichigo (いちご) is the Japanese word for strawberry. In Japan, an ichigo is the winter table's small luxury — perfumed, photogenic, briefly in season. The ICHIGO brand carries that meaning into India.
What ICHIGO is
ICHIGO is Japanese strawberry seeds, planted in Indian fields, under Japanese agricultural supervision. The cultivars are SAKURA and HARUHI, both F1 hybrids from the Berry Pop series bred by Miyoshi & Co., Ltd. of Tokyo. Cultivation happens in Maharashtra under M2labo Bharat, ICHIGO's Indian operating partner, with technical supervision from a Japanese PhD in agricultural science.
A punnet that carries the ICHIGO mark has been:
- Grown from licensed SAKURA or HARUHI seed under the ICHIGO cultivation protocol
- Picked at the agreed maturity window, not over-ripe or under-ripe
- Pre-cooled within two hours of harvest at a farm-cluster cold dock
- Single-layer packed, calyx-up, in the branded black window box
- Lot-traced back to a named plot and pick date
What ICHIGO is not
ICHIGO is not airfreighted from Japan. Doing so would be wasteful, expensive, and unnecessary — Indian growers in the right altitude bands can produce excellent fruit with the right seed and the right handling. ICHIGO is the experiment of pairing Japanese cultivars and Japanese discipline with Indian cultivation.
It is also not a ₹800-for-six-berries gift-counter luxury. SAKURA and HARUHI are positioned for the kitchen — pastry chefs, hotel F&B, dessert-first restaurants — at a price that makes weekly reorders economically sensible.
The trademark
Every ICHIGO box carries our registered trademark — printed in gold on matte black cardboard. It is M2labo's own promise that the strawberries inside were grown, picked and packed under the ICHIGO protocol.
ICHIGO® is a registered trademark of M2labo Private Limited in India. Strawberries are grown in India by M2labo Bharat under licence from Miyoshi & Co., Ltd. for the SAKURA and HARUHI Berry Pop F1 cultivars. Misuse of the mark on uncertified produce is not permitted.
The people behind ICHIGO
ICHIGO is operated by M2labo Bharat Pvt. Ltd., the Indian subsidiary of M2labo Japan (founded 2009 in Shizuoka, Japan). M2labo Bharat was incorporated in September 2024.
Suzuki Motor Corporation became a shareholder of M2labo in July 2024 — a Japanese OEM backing the India agricultural programme.
ICHIGO cultivation runs in partnership with HiMedia Laboratories (the Mumbai-based biotech firm running our Vertigrow polyhouse trials) and the City of Pune agricultural office.
Contact
For wholesale ordering, farm partnership, or press enquiries:
- Ishita Shroff — +91 98314 79900
- Mitesh Furia — +91 98207 73767
- India HR & general: contact-bharat@m2-labo.jp
- Japan / Bharat liaison: contact-bharat@m2-labo.jp
- India office (Bengaluru R&D): AWFIS Space, Brigade Metropolis, Whitefield, Bengaluru 560048
- India office (Mumbai): 519-A, Pearl Garden, RP Masani Road, Matunga East, Mumbai 400019
- Social: Instagram @m2labojapanbharat
Japanese strawberry quality, grown in India's hills.
Notes from the farm, the cold chain and the chefs putting Indian strawberries on the world's tables.