BY, NITHIN T.R, PARINITHA, PAVAN KUMAR , PRADHAN, RAHUL and RAJALAKSHMI.R.

y Supply Chain Management (SCM) not only helps in

cutting costs, but also adds to maintain and improve the quality of fruits and vegetables (F&V) marketed. y In marketing F&V, which are perishable in nature, Supply Chain (SC) plays a crucial role. y The very nature of land holding by the farmers, varied climatic conditions, production spread over wide geographical area, mainly in remote villages, diversified consumption patterns and poor SC infrastructure makes SCM for F&V more complicated, in India.

F&V Production and Consumption Scenario

y India produces 129 million tons of vegetables (NHB, 2009) and the

total area under vegetable cultivation is around 7.9 million ha. Among vegetables, potato, tomato, onion, cabbage and cauliflower account for around 60% of the total vegetable production in terms of quantity y India ranks first in fruit production in the world with an annual output of 68 million tons (NHB, 2009). There are almost 180 families of fruits that are grown all over the world. y The current production of 129 million tons of vegetables is sufficient to provide only a per capita availability of 210 g of vegetables a day (for population as per 2001 census) as against the balanced diet requirement of 400 g as per WHO recommendations. y In India just about 2% of F&V grown goes for processing, while over 25% is spoiled due to improper handling and storage, and the rest is consumed in fresh form.

Supply Chain Management in F&V Marketing

y In a SC, generally the flow of information is opposite to the direction of

flow of material. In order to make SC more efficient, it is necessary to make the flow of information bidirectional. y The nature of customer supplier relationships can be described by several attributes, such as the level of cooperation, the type of information shared among SC actors, the time horizon of the relationship, the formality of cooperation and the degree of flexibility. joint forecasting and planning, information sharing, joint inventory management, and joint control, to eliminate wastes throughout the SC and enhance customer service for the purpose of obtaining a competitive advantage.

y SCM practices today are indeed proactive and cooperative that require

y An efficient SC drives consumer satisfaction, industry

profitability and facilitates reasonable return to the farmers.

Drawbacks in the Current Supply Chain

Current Unorganized Retailing SC scenario
FARMER COMMISION AGENT WHOLESALER RETAILER CUSTOMER

The constraints in production and marketing in fresh F&V Non-availability of quality seeds, inadequate irrigation facilities, inefficiency in pest management, credit availability constraint, high cost of production, lack of timely information, huge post-harvest losses, lack of roads, cold storage, inadequate space, poor market network and high transportation cost

y Investment required to build the cold chain infrastructure is huge it will require an investment of 18,000 crore. y Post-harvest technology of fresh F&V gained enormous momentum to save losses during harvesting, handling, storage and transportation. y The extent of loss of F&V is about 12,000 cr per annum, and the loss of quantity ranges between 10 and 80% in some of the most perishable fruits and vegetables . 30% of India's F&V produce goes waste because of the lack of cold storage chains.

Number of Intermediaries
The length of SC is more with unorganized retailers, as they depend on intermediaries like commission agents/wholesalers. This makes the unorganized retailers to sell F&V to the consumers at higher prices.

Wastage: 25% in the unorganized retailing

y Quality Degradation y Poor Infrastructure Facilities y High Cost

COST OF DISTRIBUTION
Vegetables/ Fruits Organized Retailer (Rs/Kg) TOMATO 1.88 Unorganized Retailer (Rs/Kg)

2.64

Measures for Improving SC and its Effectiveness

y Demand forecasting is one of the important requirements for improving SC effectiveness y Customized logistics is another important immediate requirement to make logistics effective. y Infrastructure for SC from farm to fork, like cold storage and all season roads are minimum requirements for effective SC. y Information system for better coordination among different stakeholders from farmers to consumers is the need of the hour y Collaboration among SC stakeholders facilitates synergy in SC operations. All the stakeholders in the SC have to collaborate with common interest.

THANK YOU