June 30, 2021
Milk delivery platform Country Delight’s brings state-of-the-art offering – ‘doorstep coconut water delivery’ – and promises that each coconut will have a minimum of 270 ml of water. The water is delivered in the coconut itself. The fruit is sourced from rural Tamil Nadu and then distributed in cities across India.
Fresh coconut water is traditionally sold by street vendors. Some of them also provide doorstep delivery services. Depending on the availability and proximity to the source, the price of a fresh (piece of) coconut starts at around Rs. 30 and goes upwards of Rs. 100.
Country Delight is selling each coconut for Rs. 60. The customers can subscribe to coconut water delivery via the app, just like the brand’s milk and dairy products. Raw coconuts are heavy and bulky, which pose a major distribution challenge, especially while transporting them from rural South India to cities up north. And if the coconut hasn’t been opened, no one really knows the exact amount of water in there.
And of course, the market is currently swamped with packaged coconut water from both small and large brands. The price of packaged tender coconut starts at around Rs. 40 per 200 ml, and is offered by brands like Real, Raw Pressery, Paper Boat, etc. It is primarily consumed because of its health benefits and has gained popularity due to the increased focus on health and nutrition lately. With growing demand, grocery delivery platforms like BigBasket, etc., have also started delivering tender coconuts.
For fresh coconuts, the customers faced problems like the unpredictable quantity of water and taste, and difficulty in opening it. Also, fresh coconut is better than processed one in terms of taste and nutrition. So country delight came to a solution and innovated the packaging by fixing a pout on the coconut. It solved the inconsistency problems by freshly sourcing it from the inner regions of Tamil Nadu (Pollachi). The coconuts from there have copious amounts (of water) by virtue of the soil there.”
Post-harvesting, the coconuts are transported under ideal weather conditions to Country Delight’s processing facilities. They are partially peeled and a pout is installed on each one of them.
The cold chain is maintained until delivery. The deliveries to different regions take different amounts of time. The deliveries to Bengaluru, for instance, take 48 hours. It is 72 hours for Mumbai and 96 hours for Delhi.
Distribution is a serious challenge, especially when it comes to transporting a raw product from one region of the country to another. But the cost is kept under control by sourcing the products directly from the farms and minimizing wastage.
A large part of the cold chain is also common between milk and coconut distribution. The robust technology and tracking system for milk is helping the brand track the coconut journey as well.
Apart from the ones with the pouts, the customers can also opt for completely unopened coconuts and Country Delight provides the openers too.
The platform is currently focusing on the top 15-20 cities and has already expanded its business in 13. Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru happen to be the top consumers of coconut water.