How Tech Can Make or Break the Online Meat Biz

How Tech Can Make or Break the Online Meat Biz
The meat industry needs an overhaul. While leading D2C meat brands have transformed the experience of meat purchase for consumers, the purchase experience for bulk buyers continues to remain archaic.

By Ambika satapathy , Co-Founder, FreshR

14 Sep 2022 | 8 min read

The meat value chain in India can be divided into three broad segments - 
●    The Producers - Independent small and medium farmers, integrated contract farming companies
●    The B2B Players - Traditional traders, wholesalers, mandis, slaughterhouses, and new age supply chain startups
●    The Retailers and Bulk Buyers - Modern trade, HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, caterers), butcher shops and fishmongers, institutional bulk buyers, packaged meat product companies, exporters, and direct-to-consumer meat startups

Each segment of the value chain is adopting digital technologies for improving operational efficiencies and ensuring better marketing of produce. The online meat segment is not just limited to consumer-facing meat delivery brands, but also includes digitization of bulk procurement by retailers and bulk buyers. This procurement process is traditionally run in a rudimentary fashion, with a lack of organized players in the B2B segment.

Currently, any large buyer (modern trade, HoReCa, D2C brand, etc) is impacted by the following challenges - 

●    Multiple Vendors for Different SKUs, Limited Variety of Products - Typically, every product has a different supply chain. Chicken often comes from integrated poultry producers, freshwater fish from inland ponds, marine fish from coastal collection centers, prawns from brackish water farms and shrimp companies, goat/lamb from meat traders, etc. Even when produce is aggregated at mandis, the fish/chicken/mutton mandis tend to be separate and have different operators. A bulk buyer thus has to deal with multiple suppliers, and often it is a struggle to get high-value commodities that have limited supply.

Solution: Bulk buyers require a one-stop shop for all their diverse meat requirements. Specialized B2B players focusing on bulk domestic supply can address the requirements of retailers and HORECA.

●    Lack of Transparency Regarding Grade vs. Price - Meat and fish products come in a wide variety of grades, with corresponding price differences. For example, size of fish, glazing percentage in prawns/fillets, age of the animal (in case of goat/lamb), fat percentage, etc. Often, vendors give high-quality produce during sampling and early deliveries, and eventually, the product quality starts deteriorating. 

Solution: A digital platform that lists grades and prices for each category, allowing the bulk buyer to make an informed choice regarding the quality of the product every time they place an order.

    No Visibility on the Source and Freshness of the Product - Since fragmented, unorganized suppliers themselves have limited visibility and control over the supply chain which stretches over thousands of kilometers across multiple intermediaries, it is difficult for a bulk buyer to consistently procure fresh, high-quality variety produce from source in the shortest possible time.

Solution: A fully-integrated supply chain solution that tracks the product from the source - sampling, harvesting, grading, packaging, value-addition, transport, storage, and delivery - is needed to give bulk buyers trustworthy data on the freshness and source of their produce.

●    Poorly Maintained Cold Chain and Packaging - Since there are multiple intermediaries and long supply chains, with poor investments in cold chains, the produce often deteriorates because of poor packaging, mishandling, and lack of consistent ice/refrigeration during storage and transport.

Solution: An organized, reliable supply chain that maintains international standards of transport and distribution customized for the nature of the product to ensure maximum shelf life for retailers and HoReCa.

●    Inconvenient Ordering and Tracking of Consignment on Phone Calls/ Messages - In the current scenario, ordering the product and ensuring its delivery is a manual process, requiring additional human resources and leaving scope for errors due to miscommunication. The bulk buyer has a time-sensitive requirement, and the product not reaching on time is one of the biggest pain points for retailers and HORECA alike. 

Solution: An online ordering platform that mimics the offline ordering process, while ensuring speed and accuracy of the order. The platform should be integrated with tracking, payments, refunds, and rejection processes being fully digitized. 
    
●    Decentralised Procurement and Billing -
 Large retailers / HoReCa with multiple outlets are often dependent on city-specific suppliers, many of whom are unorganized players. It becomes difficult to place orders, ensure timely deliveries, track invoices, raise quality concerns, and manage payments. 

Solution: Pan-India meat suppliers, with centralized, timely billing systems and fixed payment cycles, can ease procurement processes for bulk buyers.

The meat industry needs an overhaul. While leading D2C meat brands have transformed the experience of meat purchase for consumers, the purchase experience for bulk buyers continues to remain archaic. A fully-integrated technological solution, backed by strong sourcing and distribution capabilities, is the need of the hour for the B2B meat sector.
 

The meat value chain in India can be divided into three broad segments - ●    The Producers - Independent small and medium farmers, integrated contract farming companies●    The B2B Players - Traditional traders, wholesalers, mandis, slaughterhouses, and new age supply chain startups●    The Retailers and Bulk Buyers - Modern trade, HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, caterers), butcher shops and fishmongers, institutional bulk buyers, packaged meat product companies, exporters, and direct-to-consumer meat startups

Each segment of the value chain is adopting digital technologies for improving operational efficiencies and ensuring better marketing of produce. The online meat segment is not just limited to consumer-facing meat delivery brands, but also includes digitization of bulk procurement by retailers and bulk buyers. This procurement process is traditionally run in a rudimentary fashion, with a lack of organized players in the B2B segment.

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