India, famous for its mom and pop stores, is moving fast towards a more organized retail market. In the cities hypermarkets and supermarkets gain popularity due to the fixed prices and a wide range of products. The majority of the supermarkets focuses on the Tier 1 and 2 cities, some of them have a more regional presence. Already today the number of stores per chain ranges from 20 to more than 1,000. Large (family) corporations are active in this area. Reliance, Tata, Aditya Birla, Future Group, Bharti, etc.
Trends
At the same time the local traditional Kirana stores (mom and pop) anticipate on this trend. They cannot offer the same range of products but their added value remains clearly in service. For example credit services, home delivery in a couple of hours, and in-depth knowledge of the neighborhood and customers.
With a growing middle class and more and more supermarkets the eating habits change as well. Think of convenient food, greater variety of ‘foreign cuisines’ and less seasonal related. These trends require more processed food.
Women and food processing
Recently Women on Wings met a couple of organizations that concentrate on this area. From pealed tomato’s to basilicum dips. Organizations which are convinced that in farming, and also in processing, women will play an important role since they are precise and hygienic in the way they operate.
Double capacity
Good news, the processing industry expects to double its capacity in the coming 3 to 5 years. Therefore, great opportunities will arise to create work for women in rural areas since the fruit, vegetable and spices industry has large but also big numbers of medium sized rural players.
Women on Wings will be active in this market to create more jobs for rural women!
