Mar 31, 2020
Prices of dairy products, vegetables esp. potatoes and tomatoes and meat may hike further with cold storages running out of refrigerants. The poultry farms are in great misery as they are unable to get feed for fowls. Retail chains, super and mega markets expressed their deep anguish over continued stocking of food items by the consumers, leaving very low stocks of food items of atta, pulses, bakery products, packaged food like biscuits, instant noodles and edible oil.
With reports coming from New Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Kochi and Pune; fresh supply of milk, food, groceries and medicines remain stagnant for retailers and ecommerce companies, while meat prices soared with ban on exports because of the lockdown. But transportation bottlenecks are showing signs of easing the supply, raising easy availability of vegetables and fruits in wholesale markets.
“Most top manufacturers are not supplying as their local distribution centres are shut due to labour shortage,” said Mohit Kampani, DMD of More Retail supply chain.
Spencer’s Retail and Nature’s Basket said quite a number of food products are sold out. The two retail chains have started sending their own trucks to the manufacturers to refill the stock, which is insufficient that by evening everything is sold out.
Rohit Sharma, Head of Grofers said that Grofers was increasing its supply chain capabilities and working closely with manufacturers to get more stocks. “But there will be longer delivery times as we were not allowed to operate for a few days in a number of cities”.
BigBasket chief executive Hari Menon said, “The Company is focusing on 3,500 essential items for procurement and is expanding manpower. We have started a huge drive to hire on-ground staff, including getting back people in our system who had left for home. We are also hiring fresh employees”.
An Amazon executive said: “We are able to replenish supplies at our warehouses but are unable to get the goods out to consumers because of an acute shortage of manpower.”
Kailash Gupta, the president of the All India Chemists and Druggists Federation, said the supply chain remained disrupted. “The company distributors are not coming to the chemists. The warehouses are not open which is resulting in supply chain disruption. The warehouses stock medicines and are located all across the country, on the outskirts of cities”.
The price of mutton and fish rose especially in Northern part of India because of limited supply, and price of chicken prices crashed due to poor sales. “With closure of the government abattoir in Ghazipur and non-issuance of e-passes, we are unable to sell mutton in Delhi-NCR,” said Gulfam Salahuddin, the president of the goat and sheep market at Ghazipur. He said wholesale prices of the old inventory had increased by 60%.
Vegetable supply is gradually increasing but fruits are still to see better market. “The situation is improving in the Azadpur market. Overall sales rose by 10% against past one week,” said Metha Ram Kriplani, the president of Delhi’s Azadpur Chamber of Fruits and Vegetables Association. He said orders from Punjab, Himachal, Haryana and Chandigarh had started coming in and if the transportation issue was resolved, sales would pick up.