Fruit and vegetables supply chain

Abstract

India produces 146 million tons of vegetables (NHB, 2011)1 and the total area undervegetable cultivation is around 8.5 million ha. Among vegetables, potato, tomato, onion,cabbage and brinjal account for around 60% of the total vegetable production in terms ofquantity. India’s annual fruit production is 75 million tons (NHB, 2011) and the total areaunder fruit cultivation is around 6.3 million ha. The major Indian fruits are mango, banana,citrus fruits, apple, guava, papaya, pineapple and grapes.Fresh fruits vegetables play a vital role in Indian context and their marketing works as aninfluencing force in the economy. Though fresh fruit and fresh vegetables retailing is a verylow margin business, the market potential is huge in country like India. This factor hasattracted many corporate into this sector.Marketing of agricultural produce is different and more challenging than many of theindustrial products because of the perishability, seasonality and bulkiness. The very natureof land holding by the farmers, varied climatic conditions, production spread over widegeographical area, mainly in remote villages, diversified consumption patterns/habits of theIndian consumers and poor SC infrastructure makes marketing for F&V more complicated, inIndia. Indian consumer demands fresh F&V. Thus SCM plays a crucial role in marketing F&V.Supply Chain efficiency not only helps in increased production and per capita consumption,but also contributes to economic development of the country. As a result, SCM throws bothchallenges and opportunities in marketing of F&V. Efficient SCM in marketing, not onlyincreases the profitability and efficiency of retailers, but also adds value to differentstakeholders like cultivators (farmers), consolidators and consumers. Objectives: Through this study we want to identify various issues involved in managing supply chain infruits and vegetables and identify and analyze different strategies that can be applied tooptimize supply chain in fruits and vegetables. The aim of this project is to report the findingfrom the study on business models of vegetable retailers in organized retailing.Methodology:Entry of organized retail in India in vegetable marketing has impacted the whole spectrumof supply chain practices. Issues like perishability, seasonality and bulkiness has been theconstant problems faced in this supply chain. The project studies the business modelsfollowed in Indian organised retailing for F&V and compares those with the practicesfollowed in other markets and suggest scope for improvements. We’ll be using case based approach where instead of relying solely on the knowledge ofproblem domain or making association with generalized relationships between problemdescriptor and conclusion, we’ll make use of previously experienced knowledge andconcrete problem situations or cases. The problem in one market can be solved by lookingfor its solution in another market where similar situation was faced earlier. Thismethodology will also help in incremental and sustained learning which can again act assolution if future problem arises.This research is exploratory and includes research instruments like in depth interviews withplayers in the organised retailing. Approach will be to find out issued faced in this business,its logistical processes and what instruments they use to tackle them.