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Sub Subji - Pre Cut Vegetable Delivery System

A unique fresh cut vegetable delivery service aiming to cut short the supply chain between farm and kitchen, while increasing the value proposition for both farmers and consumers

Background: Despite of rapid rate of urbanization in India, the International Food Policy Research Institute has ranked India at 67 out of 81 countries in the world with worst food security on the Global Hunger index, 2011. According to a recent survey, the per capita consumption of vegetables in India is only about 86 g/day, compared with FAOs recommendation of 400 g/day. The 2009 report from ActionAid claims that one of the major reasons for the existence of hunger in India is not because of insufficient food but because the people cannot access it. Bad storage practices, inefficient distribution networks and lack of effective and affordable food processing practices have all contributed for large quantity of food produces to be wasted before reaching the end consumers, hence resulting in acute price rise.

Idea: This project aims at creating a sustainable business model for fresh cut vegetable delivery service system. The main motivation behind this business idea is to help combat the price rise in vegetables and supplement the efforts to promote a balanced diet of increased per capita vegetable consumption. The idea is to set up many fresh vegetable cutting units across the residential areas in the cities. These units will act as an interface between the farmers and the kitchen. By avoiding the traditional supply chain consisting of middlemen and adding value to the vegetables by freshly processing and delivering them on demand. This unique service system will not only create employment, reduce food wastage but also encourage the urban population to consume wide varieties of vegetables which will be available to them in ready to cook condition at an affordable price. Approach: We plan to set at least one vegetable cutting and processing unit per residential area (covering a span of at least 5Km radius). Our decentralized vegetable cutting and processing units will cut and process the vegetables on demand and deliver it fresh to the customers with no delay. This approach will help us to cut cost on refrigeration, cold storage and controlled atmosphere packaging. Fresh vegetables will be procured and stored in these units with minimal controlled environment storage requirement. There will be almost no inventory of cut vegetables stored in these units. Every cut vegetable will be delivered to the consumer within minutes after processing. USP of the Project: Our lean system with just in time processing and delivery capability will help us to keep the cost low for cut vegetables, while enabling us to provide a fair price to the farmers for their produce. Consumption of seasonal vegetables will be promoted while exotic vegetables will also be made available at the doorstep of the customer on demand. Wide variety of precut vegetables will be made available to the urban masses at a very affordable price. What was the biggest challenge that the project faced? Did you overcome it? The biggest challenge for this social venture to be a success, it requires wide variety of stakeholder participation mainly from the urban community. This calls for a strong multidisciplinary team with sufficient funding to actively engage the community members. Also, identifying the most ideal city to pilot test this project has been one of the major concerns. What is (or will be) the impact of your project? By facilitating the urban population to adopt a healthy and balanced diet, we are directly transferring the economic benefits to our farmers by creating a promising market for their produce and providing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to migrant workers in the cities.

Comments Thats a good question! Let me try to provide the rational behind this project idea first. Through my initial inquiry to understand how the food security problem affected the consumers in the cities and the peri-urban farmers I understood that despite the price rise, the farmers income had not gone up while the lower middle class and poorer segment in the cities were cutting down on the quantity of vegetable in their diet. Most of the vegetables go waste in the market. On the other hand the upper middle class aspires for more convenient lifestyle and prefer to buy precut vegetables, which are 3 to 5 times expensive than fresh vegetables. This business idea will provide access to fresh cut vegetables at an affordable price to urban families. This will allow them to buy the right quantity of vegetables with less or no wastage. By cutting the vegetable on order and delivering it within minutes after being cut, we will be able to save on packaging and refrigeration on the supply side. The ordering and delivery system will be planned such that the cut vegetables will reach the kitchen from our cutting boards with freshness well retained. By increasing convenience for the consumer at an affordable premium price, we will be able to increase the demand for the farmers produce. Increased consumption means less wastage of vegetables on shelves. By creating a market, which will help farmers to earn higher premium and create employment opportunity in the cities, we expect the benefits to trickle down the pyramid by making vegetables more affordable and easily accessible to the masses

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