Food Tech Trends and Possibilities in the Indian Market
Moving out of localities, several food tech start-ups gained momentum. Tracking over marginal routes and possibilities, the Industry targeted foodie voices of the country. Be it diet conscious, continental or home-cooked meal; these mobile-based food shops are collectively improving the appetite chart of the country.
Food-tech start-ups in India are ripping fruits from the tact-able population; these start-ups grow – by providing wholesome nutritional meals to people with busy schedules, by raising easy funds from the investor markets and on receiving garnering response from those who received employment.
Retail food start-ups today contribute 70% of the total industry sales, which is further expected to boom with improved AI and technology. In spite of low profitability, the industry present insights are too drastic to predict. Here we have enlightened the current aspects of the food trends in the Indian market.
Falling resources & Rising taxes
Due to the declining economic growth of the country, the agricultural sector didn’t perform well. However facing many critical issues, the sector has always been in the priority list of government. Sketching a vibrant scope of the food sector with agriculture produce, the government;
- Prompted to bring ease in the procurement of agricultural produce through the national e-mandi portal.
- Allowed 100% FDI in marketing and e-commerce business through a direct route.
- Made healthy commitments towards supply chain infrastructure of entities involved in food culture and dairy processing units.
Braced with incentives, rigidity for taxation left unchanged for the industry as well. Never pleased for the industry, the government also lifted GST obligations on food ventures especially for restaurants when an expected Input credit benefit from them was withdrawn.
Food Tech Issues
Mocking demand and urban-dwelling professionals has made the food genre the most promising sector for Indian entrepreneurs. Although food start-ups fuel sales of retail marketplaces – working with non-cloud retailers still poses challenges for start-ups which lack them further in making a good bargain out of stated pricing.
Promoters realized that the number of transactions by consumers in this sector is quite low, while the overall cost involved in the setup i.e. the cost of delivery, customer engagement, and daily operational expenses are quite high.
Withhold and sustained only by few market players, the sector lacks in fresh entrepreneurship because of its limited access to:
- Market insights: Indicated by experts, the industry at present lacks an in-depth study of consumer’s insights, pricing objectives, and strategy building.
- funding options: To opt to fund from healthy investors, the model should be capitative and profit making. Many food start-ups fail to place the right processes of the model they would be dealing with in front of investors which further lacks them from lucrative funding options.
Moving of industry towards consolidation and combo placed products and services, the standalone existence of the food industry can be more difficult in the long run.
Foreseen opportunities
For seeking some foodie audience, India is a huge market to explore. India holds a plethora of ethnic and non-ethnic cuisines. In the food tech segment, people in India are always passionate to know about.
A number of business plans other than just incurring the delivery issues of restaurants, the industry can be well discovered to find multiple monetization options other than the basic commission based models.
Some other forgoing trend changes for food tech can be:-
- Addition of host of product categories including the beverages and health-conscious foods.
- Operational usage of vending machines.
- The rise of more delivery channels.
- Customer engagement with virtual assistants.
- Modern delivery options – parachutes, drones, and robots
- Smart data acquisition like related to road traffic: purchase history, food temperature, etc.
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