Frozen food has great potential, and the sales of Indian platform BigBasket increased fourfold!

The pandemic has given a huge boost to the frozen food segment in India . With the increase in home food sales , the segment has also witnessed growth.

On BigBasket , sales of frozen foods have grown fourfold , and the company said sales in the category are now double what they were before the pandemic . Godrej Yummiez reported a 60% increase in frozen food sales between July and September .

" The frozen food category in India was valued at Rs 1,500 crore in 2019 and grew 17% in 2020 , which is higher than our expectations, " said Rohan Agarwal, director at RedSeer Consulting .

According to industry experts, McCain, Venky's, Godrej   Yummiez and Sumeru, the top brands in the frozen food category, which together command about 60-70% market share, attributed the surge in demand to increased interest from consumers , most of whom are first-time buyers .

“Although the frozen food category is small, its demand has risen significantly in the last year , ” said Prashant Vatkar, CEO of Godrej Tyson Foods .

In the past year , brands have launched new products to cater to the growing demand of consumers . For example, Safal launched frozen okra chips, frozen chicken drumsticks , etc.; BigBasket saw a "demand gap" and successfully entered the category with its own brand Fresho's frozen pizza and frozen peas .

Most of these brands have changed their retail strategies to focus on online platforms due to reduced footfall in offline stores during the movement control period .

“ The company has increased its retail outlets over the last year , from 7,000 stores before the pandemic to 7,700 now , ” said Vatkar of Godrej Tyson Foods . “ We took several initiatives and started supplying directly to dealers who did not have distributors . ”

Companies have seen high sales from e-commerce channels , which have become the core of brands . Pradipta Sahoo, head of Safal business at Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable, said : “ In terms of online sales , during the pandemic period (April to June 2020) , our sales grew by about 25% compared to 2019. ”

Despite the newfound interest in frozen foods, they remain largely city- and region-specific. “ Frozen foods are not yet fully accessible due to supply chain and price issues , ” said Ankur Bisen, senior vice president of retail and consumer products at Technopak.

Experts say other factors could also be holding back frozen food growth , including a lack of freezer cases in regular stores, high processing costs and the perception that frozen foods are unhealthy .

India

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