The food sector in India has been witnessing quite a number of interesting startup’s. Particular reference can be made to fresh fish and meat startup’s, startup’s providing catering services and start-ups in the food delivery sector.
The market for Indian meat and poultry is pegged at $31 billion and the fish and seafood is pegged at $20 billion.In the past three years,a large number of fresh fish and meat startup’s have set up their shops in India.Such startup’s ,after consolidating their home base are having national ambitions.One such example is of a startup from Bengaluru named ‘Licious’– an Indian meat and seafood company which operates on a farm to fork model,owning the entire back end supply chain and now operates in various other cities of India.The timing for such startup’s is just right because
- More families ,specially younger people ,prefer deliveries at home.
- Most of the younger generation who live away from their homes ,are even unaware of how to buy fresh meat and fish.
In a country where 70% women and 78% men are nonvegetarians,as revealed by the National Health Survey 2015-16,this is a big opportunity. Funding is also available and VC and Angel investments are happening.Technology usage in fresh food business is very important. ‘Licious’ has technology to track every piece of fish and meat to its origin. Preserving freshness without cutting is the key.
The service sector in the food business is also seeing a phenomenal growth .There is a boom in the catering services and the job of a catering firm is no longer to stitch together a lunch package. Companies study parameters like average break timings, peak productivity level timings and so on and come up with a meal plan keeping g fresh local ingredients and health impact in mind.Dabur has promoted Lite Bite Foods (LBF) which has now entered Corporate catering and realised the massive untapped potential.
Sodexo serves 4.5 lakh meals a day in India and covers 400 clients across 10 Indian cities.Globally Sodexo serves 80 countries and serves100 million consumers daily globally.In 2017,the companies global revenue was almost $24.7 billion.
The contract catering market in India is around $6 billion.In China it is $105 billion and US it is $150 billion.Companies are now hiring food teams and making significant investments in either offering high quality food for free or at a discount.The humble office canteen is witnessing a gastronomic makeover .From investing in on-site kitchens, sprucing up facilities ,hiring professional caterers to spending anywhere between Rs 160 to Rs 650 per employee per day on food, companies are literally laying out quite a spread. Corporates are starting to look at food as a value proposition and not just an expense. This has opened up lucrative contract opportunities for catering companies. APAC is bringing innovation in Google .Compass Group is a leading provider of food services with a presence across 50 countries,servicing more than 300 clients in India and dishing out over 3lakh meals a day.French global contract catering giant Elinor has set up its base.
In the food delivery and ordering sector, Zomato and Swiggy are influencing habit formation amongst people regarding online ordering. Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and food Panda are arousing a lot of interest amongst investors. Figures from August 2018 show that Swiggy had over 19 million orders,Zomato over 12 million orders,Uber eats over 3 million and Food Panda over 1.5 million orders.Swiggy is also getting into sustainable packaging services and this they are doing by connecting vendors and restaurants.
The boom in the food sector is here to stay and the future has a lot of scope for the food technology sector
#foodtechnologystartups #entrepreneurial opportunities