Most strawberry plants in India start life as a clone — a runner cut from last season's mother plant, carrying whatever it caught along the way. Ours start as seed. Inside the nursery at our grower partner's polyhouse, on the first day of sowing, where every ICHIGO berry of the coming season actually begins.
Calyx, colour, firmness, Brix, smell. A 30-second discipline at the receiving table that catches the difference between a punnet you can plate and one you have to throw.
Japanese strawberries have a reputation — and a price — that usually means an airfreighted gift box. ICHIGO grows the same Japanese cultivars in India, on a domestic cold chain. Here's what 'Japanese strawberry' really means, and how to get them here.
Most premium strawberries in India are imported, or grown once and hoped for. Ours are grown to a method — Japanese cultivars, vertical soil-free towers, a polyhouse that holds its climate, and a pick window measured in hours. A walk through our own field, from first flower to the box on your dock.
A premium berry is a provenance story before it's a flavour. ICHIGO grows Japanese cultivars on real, named ground in India — Kaprada in Gujarat, Ambegaon near Pune — across two climates, on living soil, under Japanese supervision. Here's the map, and why each place was chosen.
Most foodservice strawberries reach the kitchen through a mandi chain built for volume, not for plating. ICHIGO is a single-source supplier of Japanese cultivars grown in Maharashtra — consistent Brix, calyx-up firmness, and a cold chain that holds. Here's how sourcing actually works.
India's strawberry fields are dominated by Winter Dawn, Camarosa and Nabila — varieties bred for yield and transport. Japanese cultivars are bred for the plate. Here's what SAKURA and HARUHI do differently, and when to put each one on the pass.
A misshapen strawberry isn't a sick plant — it's an unfinished pollination job. Each 'seed' on the surface is a separate fruit that must be fertilised one by one, and a bee is what gets that done. Here's how an insect quietly decides the shape, size and shelf life of your berry.
ICHIGO doesn't airfreight berries from Japan. It plants Japanese cultivars in Maharashtra — Miyoshi & Co's SAKURA and HARUHI varieties — under Japanese agricultural supervision. Here's what that actually means on the plate.
