A Need For Paradigm Shift to Improve Supply Chain Management of Fruits & Vegetables in India

As the Indian population is increasing, the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables isalso increasing. Owing to the perishable nature and very short shelf life, these itemsrequire proper storage and transportation facilities in order to reach to the customer infresh state. A lack of investment in agriculture makes the country vulnerable tointernational price shocks as well as exchange-rate volatility. This requires aconsiderable amount of effort from the involved parties. The entire chain is fraughtwith issues like lack of transparency in pricing (at the farmers\' end), dominance oftraders, weak links in supply chain, etc. This leads to loss of revenue to the farmer andincreased additional costs to the other supply chain partners, which ultimately enforcesthe final consumer to bear extra burden on his pocket. Since organized retail hasstarted showing interest in marketing of fresh fruits and vegetables and they havealready entered into the market with huge investments, the issues involved in thissupply chain have changed dramatically and are influencing not only the supply chainpartners but also the whole agriculture sector in India. The present study undertakes athorough review of basic and contemporary literature available and tries to explain thechallenges & opportunities in supply chain management to create a bridge betweenrural & urban market. It also brings out relevant research gaps and overlookedproblems in the supply chain.The proposed research work is exploratory in nature using secondary sources. The data& information has been collected from various reports, newspapers, journals,magazines, websites etc.The main objective of this paper is to understand constraints in Supply ChainManagement for perishable goods in our country and explore the various challengesand opportunities evolving in day to day product handling. Rapid entry of corporateinto marketing of vegetables and fruits sectors will help the farmers as they are goingfor direct tie-ups with farmers eliminating the middle men at various levels. The majorchallenge is how to adopt best practices in supply chain management like collaborativeforecasting, data integration, increased usage of IT, demand-based production,incorporating a pull system for fruit and vegetable production rather than a pushsystem sharing risk and rewards by the supply chain partners, etc. What should Firmsfrom established and mature economies are increasingly expanding into emergingmarkets. As Indian economy is still based on Agrarian economy proper supply chainmanagement of perishable goods will play a crucial role in developing the economy &help India to emerge as a global leader in Food Sector. Having a galore ofopportunities & resources the hindrance/gap between rural & urban market of Indiashould be collaborated through proper vendor management, warehousing & logisticsmanagement.