The spiky agave plant was once dismissed as a stubborn, valueless weed in India, used only as fencing to keep wild animals off crops. Now it is being called ‘blue gold’ — and it is fuelling a new spirits industry.
Masapalli Venkatesh, a farmer in Kandukur on the Deccan Plateau, remembers when traders first approached him in 2010 looking for agave americana. On his 10-acre farm, he grows tomatoes, peanuts and corn. The cactus was just a nuisance. But it belongs to the same family of agave plants that feeds the $15bn (£11bn) global market for tequila and mezcal.
“India's wild agave, once seen as a weed, is now prized as 'blue gold' for a new spirits industry.”
Unlike in Mexico, where blue agave is farmed in Jalisco and only plants from select areas can be used for tequila, nobody grows agave commercially in India — at least not yet. Instead, farmers and entrepreneurs collect and process agave that grows wild.
Venkatesh now ranges across an area of 100km (60 miles), co-ordinating villagers and farmers. “By combining the yields of multiple farms, I ensure a steady, high-volume supply that distilleries are willing to pay a premium for,” he says.
Harvesting the plant is a skilled job. The most important part is the heart, or piña, so called because it resembles a giant pineapple. Skilled workers reveal it by chopping off the spiky leaves — but the timing is critical. “Gatherers must accurately identify the exact pre-blooming window to harvest the plant at its absolute peak sugar capacity, making the timing of the harvest incredibly narrow,” explains Rakshay Dhariwal, founder of the distiller Maya Pistola Agavepura. Once the plant decides to bloom, it channels its sugar into the stalk in days. If the flower blooms, the sugar is depleted and the piña becomes useless.
After harvest, the clock starts ticking. The piñas must reach a pressure cooker within 24 hours to extract the sugars. “Any transport delay can risk ruining the batch. If it takes longer than 24 hours, the internal sugars begin to rot and ferment unpredictably, destroying the delicate flavour profile needed for premium spirits,” says Dhariwal.
Transport is far from straightforward. Agave suppliers are scattered across vast distances in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. “Brands like us cannot simply order from a centralized farming cooperative. We rely on networks of local aggregators to scout, negotiate for, and harvest individual patches of semi-wild agave,” Dhariwal adds.
The nascent industry is growing, but the challenges of timing, transport and scale remain. For now, India’s wild agave is a valuable new crop — but only if you can get to it fast enough.