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Farm to Fork

By himanshu yadav on 21 Comments / 4467 views

Hello Rodinhooders

Hope all of you are Doing Good. I work as Sales Guy and from some time i am thinking about an idea. I would like to get your feedback on market Potential of the Idea.I am based out of Navi Mumbai and my target area is Mumbai.

I am Fascinated by the idea of Connecting Farm to Fork i.e. Supplying Vegetables and Fruits to the Housing Societies. The Fruits and Vegetables(Sourced Directly from farms) will be Cleaned, Packed and Delivered to the Buyers at price lower than Street Vendors.

But I am not Clear about  the Response of Prospective Buyers in terms of Buying through this Mode. So what all Rodinhooders think about the Idea and what Response it will get from the Prospective Buyers.

Please feel free to give negative feedback as that is most important.

Thanks.

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21 Comments

  1. hi himanshu,

    pls tell everyone which city you’re from and which cities you’d like to target. (you may edit your post and add it there so no body misses it). the city is of a huge relevance!!

    i will surely comment on your post during the week and will share relevant links with you as well.

  2. Isn’t this what Walmart and other big supply chain companies do? How is your idea different?

  3. Hello Asha,

    Thanks for reminding me of City which i forgot to mention,thus edited the post and looking forward to your comments.

  4. Hi Nishant,

    Yes Walmart and other supply chain companies do source Directly from Farmers but there are some differences-

    1. They Don’t Deliver Vegetables and Fruits to Societies or you can say to the home’s of buyers(Some unorganized players do Delivery but their Price points is higher) 

    2.Quality of vegetables is not good in most of their stores as you can see Stale vegetables are not separated from the good ones. 

    3. Pricing  is also on  higher side as infrastructures cost add up in pricing.

    These are  Major Differences.

  5. Himanshu,

    frinend of mine who run Punexpress.com operate something like what u propsoing ..and they are facing many diffuculiting in SCM so they are about to close that virtical. There are other players in pune market who operate on same concept also. Perishability is what your biggest challenge  and as you trying to implement it in Mumbai you will probably source it from near farm(Where are they?)(you need to calculate distance, time, cost, profit margin, cold storage etc).

    How you plan to conceive societies that its not bought from market it is actually source from farm ?

    I dont think its possible to sell at price lower than Street Vendors when you said “(Sourced Directly from farms) will be Cleaned, Packed and Delivered to the Buyers”

    Personally i don’t think its viable unless you have strong backup, good SCM and cold storage facility.

    Instead you can focus on Organic fruits or vegetables

    Cheers!!

    Hope its not as negative as you thought. 

  6. Himanshu,

    The Idea looks nice if this is done from the farms Directly and Not the APMC market in Vashi or Navi Mumbai or similar other markets in Dadar, Byculla etc as well!! This is a Labor intensive activity you are looking at, Skilled as well as Unskilled as a major part of it to comprise and manage on a daily basis with TIME at stake every minute.

    Have tried doing this long back when there were no Modern Trade Stores available and only Major Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Markets were available for the Goods to be sourced being viz. APMC, Dadar, Byculla then. It is a tough thing and needs a lot of Logistical planning and then again would need unskilled labor at all times to get things organized at your own Warehouse and Keep it Ventilated and Conditioned to keep them Fresh at all times since these are Perishable goods with a low Shelf Life, the only option which remains on them getting spoilt is Throw away (Or feed it to Animals, if they are ready to consume…) which adds to your LOSS costs, need to manage this as a priority to start with with the proper Arrangements in order as well.

    Almost all Modern Trade Stores (Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar, D Mart, Sahakari Co op stores etc) are doing this from quite some time now and they have a lower price point as well as Combos made available with Full page Advertisements running in the leading News papers about them as well too.

    You would need your own Transportation fleets (If not rented to do this on a daily basis) and a Large Store house with a lot of people managing the inward and outward flow and Sorting and segregation of the various Quality wise and also to avoid Odour getting absorbed with each other (You would not want a Pineapple to smell like Onion would you now, or a Mint flavored Banana ? if they are stocked , stored nearby)

    Also Security for Miscreants, not to forget the unavoidable Rats and other Insects etc you would need to keep away and would need to take care extra about these things, with fresh and clean Supply of Water for cleaning and Sprinkling on the Vegetables and Fruits and then Sweep the extra water away as well so if you are not aware that only 1 piece of Elaichi if Thrown into a Warehouse full of Unripe Banana’s would make a Pulp out of them by the Evening and make them all Ripe and Wasted… 😀 

    The things that you are targetting need to evaluated on a few points if anything different than them or anyone else too.

    Warehousing , Logistics, Cost Factors, Geographical locations catered to, Delivery time frame, Order bookings and collection of payments, minimum Order for this purpose, Business Model.

    What I see in your response for the comment is more of an Operational Difference and nothing which would otherwise make it any different as a ME2. There are a lot of Direct to home order takers (we had a small part of this in our project too) These are Wholesale Buyers hence their price points are a bit higher) on Pre booking orders for a particular Type and then segregate and repack them for Individual orders, its tougher that ways and requires more manpower and time consuming too.

    FYI – The Government of India, Maharashtra has started the Fresh Fruits, Vegetables services for Societies and for certain areas which provide the same from Farmers to them at the Discounted Stores at various such locations which are continuously being added for the purpose. You might be interested to find out more on this if that is what  you are intending to do, you can also become a volunteer and do it similarly for the targeted areas if not available already.

    Success depends on
    Size Of Thoughts
    Speed of Execution
    Depth of Determination
    Strength of Attitude &
    Length of the Journey!

    If you feel without Infrastructure you would be able to pull this off as you point out for the ones already doing it, either you have not done your required Homework or Research yet  (which you should do for a Start) to understand the various things involved and the process from sourcing to delivery with everything in between) [Took me 2 Months to just do this part, when I tried it] Then sort the things with sourcing and associate with the relevant Vendors for the various requirements to make your Flowchart and Close it to Execute finally !!! 🙂

    Failing to Plan, is Planning to Fail!!

    Cheers!!!

  8. Thanks Amol for feedback and its good to have Negative feedback.

    Following are my views on Questions you have Raised-

    Yes there are challenges in the Sourcing and Perishability is big issue there. This is also one of  the reason why Vegetables are so highly Priced,  

    I don’t need to convince societies about from where sourcing is Done. Direct sourcing is done to get Vegetable at less Price Points.

    See the Selling price will Depend on the Volume. Selling Price can be Lower than Street Vendors as they sell at 40% Higher Price.

    Organic Fruits and Vegetables is also good Suggestion by You and can you help me with the Potential of it.

  9. Thanks Darshan for Such nice and Detailed explanation.

    As I said earlier also that is had just Started working on this Idea and i thought Rodinhooders can help me with intricacies of this Business. I will work on it and then Come Back for Your Feedback.  

    Can you Help me  with the Buying preference of People. If Vegetables in Society are Sold at same Price  as Outside Vendors, will People Prefer to Buy from Society or outside Vendors.This will Help me in estimating Potential. 

    Thanks Again

  10. Well, i don’t have a lot of first hand experience in buying vegetables, but i remember that my mom has used services similar to your’s  and i will share the experience.

    – The first time i heard of something similar was around 10 years ago when some company started this service via phone. The service was great for the first month, but as they grew the quality of the vegetable degraded and my mom stoped using the service and eventually the company shut down after some time

    – In a more recent experience, she bought vegetables from another newly launched website. The quality of the stuff was good for the first two orders but after which the quality went down and she stopped using the service after her 4th order. The website was shut down after 6 months.

    The point i am trying to make is that unless you ensure good quality, you are going to run out of business. If you screw you order even once during the early days, you are going to loose the customer.

    As a concept, it is great. If i have to buy vegetables someday, i would prefer to order them rather than going to the market to buy them. 🙂

  11. Thanks Ankit.

    Yes if you don’t maintain Quality you will be Out of Business. But Quality also Depends time of the Season You are buying. If Season is near end then you will Not get the Good Quality Product.

    thanks for sharing the experience and it is morale boosting. Please do share more such experience.

  12. Guess not!! You need to balance your Equation with profits and value addition with cost factor to the customers in Price points to retain them or make them move away from their favourite local vendor to buy from you. 🙂 Rest is purely your own Skillset and Sales and Marketing techniques used!! Can take this offline if you can call me on my Number anyday After 12 Noon 😀 Add me to share messages  here and on Fb as well.

  13. Think about this….10 years down the line – number of farmers to be impacted, number of suicides saved, agriculture becoming IT (most envied and lucrative job). Yeah, those are the sorts you have to be thinking – more than responsiveness Because you are disrupting the way people buy/sell food. I would say hold on to patience real tight!

    p.s: Champ, its time for the idea!

  14. Himanshu : this idea was discussed in this forum some time back. The out come that time which shd be held relevant even today. This is High volume-Low margin business.
    1 u will compete with Govt. subsidized shop started recently.
    2 farmers group co op are doing same
    3 Govt have reduced ‘Aadat'(Marathi word) for commission ,from 12% to 6%
    4 govt is doing it with grains too

    It’s a hectic and low margin business …besides consumer in this segment is
    1 not loyal to yur service
    2 it will shift to substitute easily
    3 wastage storage are main issue
    4 you will commit say 30p kg Tomato/onion,next day market shot up to 70p kg ur customer will still demand the low price or stop eating tomato for some time

  15. Farm to fork is a nice word , may be you source farm food and tweak it to QSR joint for healthy juices- Sandwitches ask one of the Vegeatarean QSR GUY here!

  16. Not to discourage you, but I think this is one area where the competition is very high and the hard work required to maintain the quality of vegetables is too much. If you want to go ahead with this model, I’d suggest talking to few people who shut down their shops of similar kind to understand the issues. Unless you have clear answers for all those problems, it is better to volunteer as Darshan suggested. My 2 cents, thank you.

  17. Thanks Aparna for Motivating Lines.

  18. Hi Himanshu,

    I know few people who have already started such service and they have tied up with few farmers around Nashik for supply of good quality produce. Check few of them here who are catering to mumbai – 

    https://farm2home.co/

    https://www.eemli.com/

    Now, with the inputs of all other Rodinhooders about possible challenges and issues, does that mean this idea is not worth to try..? I would say the market is huge, so you can definitely try and differentiate to survive. However,  I would recommend that as a differentiator, you should choose some new parameter. For example, in this idea, the possible differentiator can be time of delivery, price, quality etc. But what if you can differentiate and disregard the current competition with a new model. Now, check this website http://www.thefresh20.com/, which was started by a lady catering to 5 days supply of grocery, along with recipes and other related stuff. Such thing, if launched here, can be a winner, when you are typically targetting office going couples and plan to give them convenience. 

    Think over the competitive advantage and I would say, you will start from there.. everything else, are just wild thoughts..!!

  19. There is no competitive advantage in this…
    When Farmers soon will start dumping market on their own ‘soon’ ! From rice to veggies people will flock there

    If you want to learn 1st lesson of enterprenuership ‘try and fail’ learn it
    Test the idea on limited no. Catering 25 customers neighbours,relatives -u will learn customer acquisition
    Procure the veggies- u learn sourcing, logistic ,storage, supply chain building contacts
    Test the idea for 8 weeks consistently
    Check the out come, and put it on TRH , finance,profit…If its working go ahead and launch

  20. Hi Himanshu,

    Everything and everybody who want to reach the customers place definitely have their share. The idea definitely work. As mentioned by Darshanbhai and other members the success / growth will be purely a matter of market you are targeting and competition. 

    Area : Need can be can either fulfilled or Created (if it is not there). Depend on your approach. 

    Competition: Tough but there is always place for you. As the phrase goes, nobody is perfect, you can always find out USP for your project.

    Logistics is a painful area for almost everybody…Identify area, divide it into parts, collect samples. Meet peoples and know their area of concern about these products. This will give you insights and issues you can solve by your project..

    If you can manage vegetables delivery you can deliver almost everything, milk, grocery, ready to eat food, cakes, can help them in paying their bills, and all using a single system. Think, plan, implement, Think, grow (be careful!)……..

    We provide home delivery services for cakes in Ahmedabad (check cakehunt.com)… As mentioned by Aparna, have trust and patience. Do let me know if i can be of any help to you..

    All the best !

  21. Do a Small Pilot, you won’t know until you get down to doing it.

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