As the Indian population is increasing, the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables is also increasing. Owing to the perishable nature and very short shelf life, these items require storage and transportation facilities in order to reach to the customer in fresh state. This requires a considerable amount of effort from the involved parties. The entire chain is fraught with issues like lack of transparency in pricing (at the farmers' end), dominance of traders, weak links in supply chain, etc. This leads to loss of revenue to the farmer and increased additional costs to the other supply chain partners, which ultimately enforces the final consumer to bear extra burden on his pocket. Since organized retail has started showing interest in fresh fruit and vegetable markets and has already entered into the market with huge investments, the issues involved in this supply chain have changed dramatically and are influencing not only the supply chain partners but also the whole agriculture sector in India.
India is witnessing rapid changes in retailing of fruits and vegetables. Domestic market for both traditional and exotic fruits and vegetables is increasing. Indians spend more than 50% of income on food items-more of fruits and vegetables.
But this industry is facing major challenges in the form of unavailability of fresh and quality fruits and vegetables, its supply chain suffers from maximum inefficiency and in spite of the fact that India is the 2nd largest producer of Fruits and vegetables it still face problems in easy procurement and supply.
The Fruit and vegetable supply chain process
The supply chain of fruits and vegetables is a cluster formed with the participation of all stake holders such as farmers, seed growers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers etc. Information sharing is essential for generating the effeciencies
The supply chain of fruits and vegetable is very simple to understand. The parties involved in the