ITC Ltd plans to raise the number of its fruit and vegetable outlets to 140 in three years. The company plans to operate 50 of Choupal Fresh stores by March in the cities of Hyderabad, Pune and Chandigarh ITC Agri Business CEO S Sivakumar, told reporters here.
The Kolkata-based company currently has three stores selling fresh produce. ITC, is adding new businesses, such as clothes retailing and will compete with Reliance Industries Ltd in the fresh food industry.
Rural markets
ITC uses its network of Internet kiosks and rural supermarkets to buy produce from  farmers. It purchases produce such as wheat directly from  farms, selling it as Ashirvaad brand of flour and using it as an ingredient for its Sunfeast range of cookies.
The company has a network of more than 6,500 “e-Choupal” kiosks named after the Hindi word for a village meeting place. Farmers sell their crops online, then deliver the produce to supermarkets known as Choupal Sagars run by ITC, where they can buy everything from mobile phones to pesticides. ITC operates 18 Choupal Sagars.