About ICHIGO®

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 JIV, 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

ICHIGO® is a registered trademark of M2labo Private Limited in India. Strawberries are grown in India by JIV 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.

For wholesale ordering and farm/retailer partnership enquiries, contact ICHIGO India: Ishita Shroff — +91 98314 79900, Mitesh Furia — +91 98207 73767, or email ichigo@vegibus.in.