In early August 2026, eleven farmers and management representatives from seven Fairtrade certified grape producer organisations in Maharashtra arrived in Anand, Gujarat, with a practical question. A grape producer company in Nashik and a dairy cooperative in Anand sell very different products, but both are owned by the farmers who supply them, and both depend on the same foundations: a board that understands its role, records that can be trusted, and members who stay involved as the business grows.

The Anand Cooperative Model, developed by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and visible today across the Amul network, offered a working answer built over decades. Fairtrade NAPP organised this exposure visit so that grape producer organisations could examine that model at close range, through expert-led sessions on cooperative principles, institutional development and value chain management, and through visits to the places where the model operates every day. The participants came from PPF Grapes Grower Fair Farmers Producer Company Ltd., Monsoon Small Grapes Growers Producer Company Limited, Vinifex Agro Producer Company Ltd, Kaledhonekar Farmer Producer Company Limited, Sahyadri Fruits Producer Company Ltd., ND Small Farmers Producer Company Limited and Freshyard Farmer Producer Company Limited.

The Boardroom Is Where the Business Begins

The clearest gain of the two days was a sharper understanding of what a board of directors is actually for. In sessions on cooperative principles and institutional development, NDDB specialists walked participants through the way the Anand model sets out roles and responsibilities in writing: what the constitution requires of directors, how decisions are recorded, how a member in a village can see their voice reaching the board table, and how leadership passes from one set of directors to the next without the business losing direction.

For the management representatives in the group, this connected directly to the governance support Fairtrade NAPP provides to producer organisations in India, including work on constitutions and on the roles and responsibilities of boards. Participants left able to describe their own governance documents in concrete terms, and with a clear picture of how a well-defined structure protects the interests of small-scale farmers as volumes and turnover increase.

"The NDDB Anand model is inspiring for the grape industry. Any organisation can adopt the strong and proven principles of NDDB and build something sustainable. We are lucky to know about the governance model and the use of technology in the business. We will adopt the maximum learnings in our own organisation."

- Ramhari Padol, PPF Grapes Grower Fair Farmers Producer Company Ltd., Maharashtra, India

Following One Product from the Village Collection Point to the Shelf

Reading about a value chain and walking through one are different experiences. Participants visited a village dairy cooperative society, the Amul Dairy Plant, the Chocolate Plant and the Dairy Museum, and followed a single product from the moment it is collected from a member to the moment it reaches a consumer. They watched quality testing at the collection point, saw how results are recorded and how payment follows from those records, and observed processing technology and quality management systems operating at scale.

Grapes are seasonal and perishable in ways that milk is not, but the logic transfers. Participants returned with specific reference points for their own aggregation, grading, cold chain and value added operations, including raisins and other processed lines, and with a clearer view of what it takes for a member-owned company to move up the chain rather than remain a supplier of raw fruit.

"We have learned many things in this programme, such as good governance in a cooperative society and in a farmer producer company, and the way women take part in it. We visited the Amul factory and the village collection centre and learned the process. We also got more information on marketing, which will help us to explore our product in the domestic market."

- Roshan Zhalte, ND Small Farmers Producer Company Limited, Maharashtra, India

Marketing That Starts with the Customer, Not the Crop

A session on customer-oriented marketing strategies gave participants a way of thinking that many had not applied to grapes before: begin with what the customer wants and work backwards to the farm, rather than beginning with the harvest and looking for someone to take it. NDDB specialists showed how a member-owned business builds a brand, holds a consumer promise consistently across seasons, and uses that position to negotiate from strength.

Maharashtra's Fairtrade certified grape organisations sell largely into export markets, where fairer prices and long-term trading relationships are central to their planning. The discussion opened a second line of thinking about the domestic Indian market and about value added products, and several participants identified this as the area they most want to explore in the coming season.

Digital Records That Make Traceability Routine

Sessions on digital technologies for smart and sustainable cooperatives showed participants how a large member-owned business keeps track of what it buys, from whom, at what quality, and at what price, without depending on memory or loose paperwork. Seeing digital record keeping in operation at the point of collection changed how participants viewed their own systems.

This links closely to the Fairtrade Standards on Trade covered during the programme, including trading contracts, traceability, product sourcing and correct use of the FAIRTRADE Mark. Participants came away seeing traceability less as a requirement to satisfy at audit time and more as the everyday discipline of a serious business, one that also makes each organisation a more reliable partner for the buyers it works with.

Women Recognised as Owners of the Business

The session on gender mainstreaming in producer organisations, followed by conversations with women members and with cooperative leaders in Anand, gave participants a practical picture of inclusive governance. They saw how women were brought into the institutional structure of the dairy cooperatives as members and decision makers rather than only as contributors of labour, and how that participation was built into the rules of the organisation rather than left to individual goodwill.

Women play a substantial role in grape cultivation and post-harvest work in Maharashtra. Participants discussed how their own organisations can recognise that role formally, in membership, in committees and in the way meetings are scheduled and conducted, and identified this as one of the most transferable elements of the Anand model.

Carrying the Learnings Back to the Vineyards

The programme closed with a review and feedback session, and follow-up meetings and discussions were held during the visit to agree what happens next. Each organisation is now reviewing its own governance documents, board roles, record keeping and member communication against what it observed in Anand, and identifying the changes it can make within the current season.

Adapting a model built around a daily, year-round product to a seasonal and perishable fruit crop will take time, and the participants were realistic about that. What they carry back is a set of reference points they can test in their own context, and a shared conversation across seven organisations that did not exist before the visit. Fairtrade NAPP will continue to work alongside these organisations in Maharashtra on governance, on Fairtrade Standards on Trade, and on strengthening the grape value chain, so that the learnings from Anand translate into decisions taken in their own board rooms.