Amazon Associating Indian Farmers To Deliver Products Fresh Out The Farm

The Idea: Farm-to-Fork

This sustainable model has the motto of delivering fresh produce from farmers to the doorstep of customers. The Idea is put to test with an initial project running in Pune where they are directly collaborating with farmers to supply produce fresh out the farm.

According to a report of ET, on Wednesday (Dec 18) the eCommerce giant's wholly-owned division in food retailing ARIPL (Amazon Retail India) announced that they are working with many state farmers. The repositories of cold storage have been set up in nearby regions of the city to supply farm fresh produce through online channels Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry.

If the idea has successful outcomes then company will launch a program to implement it across the country.

Involvement of governing bodies in the agro sector

• Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) has a crucial role in this collaboration.
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is helping to enhance the results with research work.
• Amazon is using the utmost potential benefits of technology to deliver this sustainable model of Farm-to-Fork. This will help in procuring fresh stocks of fruits and veggies from collectors across various mandis.  

Numbers do make an Impact

In April 2019, in order to increase the sale of groceries and household food products, Amazon did an investment of INR 240 Cr ($35 Mn) in ARIPL. There is a talk in town that Amazon had planned to utilise $500 Mn out of $5 Bn commitment towards the country.

Amazon India Head, Amit Agrawal shared his thought that the household business of groceries will occupy half of the Indian market by 2023 and amazon will play an important role in this shift.

Competing with Key Players

Besides Amazon, there are other competitors trying to develop business through a sustainable model of Farm-to-Fork or Farm-to-Table. Some of the prominent names are Zomato, Big Basket, Milkbasket, Freshtohome, and Licious. These companies have already been in the race to build a direct-to-consumer channel for food delivery to homes, restaurants and other consumers.