Study on Metro cash and carry: Bangalore’s supply chain for fresh food products

Abstract

Food accounts for around 50% of an average Indian’s monthly spend. A study found that a typical Indian consumer spends 24% of the total food and grocery expenses on fresh fruits and vegetables, thus making this an important segment within food and grocery. 1 Food and grocery segment includes other perishables like poultry, livestock and fish in addition to cereals, pulses, beverages and packaged food. Due to the perishable nature of fresh produce, their supply chain has different characteristics compared to other grocery products. After China, India is the world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetables. Due to poor storage facilities and inadequate cold-chain infrastructure, about 25 to 30% of the total produce (fruits & vegetables) are wasted. Post-harvest losses of perishables (including fruits and vegetables) have been estimated to be over INR 1 trillion/annum. 57% of this is due to avoidable wastage and the rest is on account of avoidable costs of storage and commissions. Lack of an efficient supply chain infrastructure connecting farm to fork has resulted in the end consumer paying a premium for the wastages and the resultant shortages.2 Table1, details the characteristics’ associated with the supply chain of perishables in India.