It’s Thursday morning, and three directors and several shareholders of a seafood company are gathered around a conference table, absorbed in a presentation on food packaging. An instructor at the Indian Institute of Packaging says in Marathi, “Good packaging adds value to a product; it can also fetch a higher price.”As the director nods, the screw-like gajra in his hair sparkles with silver and the gold nose ring in his nose shines. Koli women never participated in any workshop. Nor has he ever worked for a company – let alone run one. Yet he is also the director of Dariyavardi Producer Company Limited (DPCL), Mumbai’s first fish farmer producer organisation: a community-owned enterprise led entirely by Koli women, which aims to transform their fish-vending business from a cottage industry into a corporate enterprise. They already have 1,000 shareholders from the community. Apart from delivering fish, masala and snacks, they are also diversifying into running live food counters and online sales. A community kitchen is being prepared, work on a cloud kitchen is going on and export possibilities are being explored. In April, the company completed three years of establishment. “We didn’t realize that packaging affects the shelf life,” says Pratibha Patil, director, Juhu Koliwada; We always sold fish in polythene bags.” “Now we have discovered that packaging that is leakproof and attractive is not only more hygienic but can also help us sell more.”For 600 years, Koli women have plyed their trade the way they had learned it: moving in a straight line from landing centers and wholesale markets to independent sales counters. Even as markets evolved and competition reduced profits, his model remained largely unchanged. But now new currents are flowing in the community, which is changing the way women do business. And better packaging is just part of the change. The bigger picture includes streamlined operations, centralized logistics, product development, digital payments, soft-skills training, branding and marketing – all functions of modern business that are reshaping Koli commerce. “We decided to follow the Amul model, which brought together Koli women to collectively produce and market fish and fish-based products. And because we wanted complete autonomy, we decided to run the enterprise not as a cooperative, but as a company,” says community leader Ujjwala Patil, who in 2018 founded the fishermen’s rights organization Daryavardi Mahila Sangh — the company’s ideological precursor. “What Amul did for white revolution, DPCL will do for blue economy.“The company is a conglomerate of over 50 self-help groups in Koliwada across the city, each of which undertakes specialized work that supports big business.