Stories of meat delivery apps

Variety, quality and hygiene go into the making of a successful online business in meat vending, say entrepreneurs

Whatever your needs, chances are there is an e-commerce app where you can get your hands on it. Apps that cater to specialised categories becoming increasingly popular, for many reasons. Seafood and meat delivery apps, for example, have quickly become household names. Their popularity can be gauged from the sheer number of options available in the category.

One of the first players in the sector, Licious, was started in 2015 by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta. “Although 73 per cent of Indians eat meat and seafood, the industry is highly unorganised,” says Vivek Gupta, co-founder. An average Indian household consumes 2,000-3,000 different branded products, meat being almost the only exception. More than 95 per cent of the fresh meat and seafood industry in India is unbranded, and usually conjures up an image of unhygienic local market and an unpleasant buying experience. “We wanted to change the way Indians experience meat,” he says.

The company sources from the local livestock farmers in each of their markets. “For fish and seafood, the wild catch is sourced from fishermen by the coast and cultured ones from farmers,” he explains.

It is the same guarantee of sourcing from traditional players while ensuring quality checks that drive customers to them. FreshTohome, for examples, have sellers that contract farm the antibiotic chickens they sell on their platform, says Shan Kadavil, co-founder, FreshToHome.

If these companies source from the fisherfolk themselves, why should the customers not just go to them? Dippankar S Halder, founder, Jalongi, says this is because apart from quality, they provide a wider range of products. “We offer freshwater and sea fish, as well as seafood. Fisherfolk or fish farmers cannot provide as much variety,” he says. Apart from this, most of these apps take care of the cleaning and cutting process, making the cooking experience for buyers an easier one.

Pandemic popularity

Fishy Business, a newer entrant in the market, came into being because its founder, Sufiyan Jason Paul, found that there was a huge gap between the source (fishermen) and the end consumer. “There are market inefficiencies, as well, which we plan to bridge,” he
says.

They source their seafood from vendors in Chennai and Tuticorin and deliver citywide in Chennai and Bengaluru.

Started during the pandemic, the company has built its customer base solely through word-of-mouth. “At the moment, we are currently selling to family and friends, but we have been seeing a significant increase in customers and sales. We plan to open to the general market by the second quarter,” he says.

Jalongi has grown three-and-a-half times over the pandemic. Many traditional players depend on a middle market, where they buy produce online. However, during the lockdown, the supply shut. Customers began looking elsewhere,” says Dippankar.

Licious, which delivers over a million orders every month, alos saw a remarkable growth. “The pandemic created a heightened awareness about safety, hygiene, quality and traceability of food and fresh produce amongst consumers,” says Vivek. This, he says, has been one of the reasons such apps have gained popularity over the past year. “Since the initial lockdown, our business grew by 300 per cent. The average basket size per customer has also grown by 30 per cent,” he says.

Fresh to home which has a customer base of 20 lakh people has also seen a growth of 2.5 times in the past six months. Shan cites similar reasons for this growth.

Why online?

Dippankar says that the popularity is not because the mode is online, but because the product is delivered. “Many traditional players, during the lockdown, began delivering to their regular customers and those within a 4-5 km radius,” he says.

He started the business in Kolkata, where every mohalla has at least one fish market. “People were sceptical. But, what my company does is source fresh fish from Sundarbans and have it delivered to customers in a matter of hours, something that traditional players cannot easily replicate,” he says. While people can purchase from apps such as Big Basket or Dunzo, D2C brands allow for a more personalised and customised experience, he adds.

Challenges

The biggest challenge, Sufiyan says, has been to ensure that the order reach customers fresh. “With the relaxation of travel restrictions, this has become better to a large extent,” he says.

Vivek says more than building a brand, it is about upgrading an entire ecosystem. “We are continuously working towards building greater awareness about high quality, safe and traceable meat and seafood and removing the stigma associated with butchery by formalising the profession,” he says.

Today, 90 per cent of the country’s cold chain is devoted to potatoes, which calls for a lot of changes in the infrastructure of the industry, he adds.