India’s farming community hardly had the time to celebrate the bumper harvest that followed an unusually wet winter, before it got hit by the nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of Coronavirus.
Unlike sectors where goods can be held in storage for a reasonable amount of time, agriculture thrives on fresh produce being sold within hours of being picked from the farm. Bengaluru-headquartered Ninjacart, reportedly one of India’s largest fruit and vegetable supply chain companies, has moved in to ease the plight of farmers and help people stay indoors, with an app-based fresh produce sales plan.
Targeted at residents of apartment blocks in Chennai, Delhi, Gurugram, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Ninjacart ensures location-specific vegetable and fruit sales for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown. Customers need to download the Ninjacart app from Google Playstore (it doesn’t have an iOS version), and fill out an online form with details of location, identity proof and so on. Ninjacart then assigns a mobile seller to the registered apartment block (with a minimum order of 50 kilograms per building).
“The COVID-19 pandemic really caught all of us by surprise,” says Ninjacart co-founder and CEO Thirukumaran Nagarajan, who prefers to be known simply as ‘Thiru’. “From a supply chain business, we have transformed ourselves into a company on a par with an essential service provider — just like you need hospitals to be working during lockdown, you need fruits and vegetables to be available daily too.”
The COVID-19 effort has seen the five-year-old company change its operations as well, says Thiru. “So far, we have covered 1,000 apartments in six cities, with the help of 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers and staff. With many of our drivers being on the road for 12 or 13 hours daily, besides all our other executives and labourers putting in long hours, we realised that we had to provide them food, and if necessary, accommodation as well, to help them carry out their duties effectively. This was totally new for us,” says Thiru.
Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder and CEO, Ninjacart. Photo: Special Arrangement/THE HINDU
An electrical engineer with an MBA from IIM-Kozhikode, Thiru was part of several technology startups before co-founding Ninjacart with Sharath Loganathan, Vasudevan Chinnathambi, Kartheeswaran KK, Ashutosh Vikram and Sachin Jose. “Though I have moved away from my core degree, the Engineering mindset helped in solving a lot of operation-related problems,” says Thiru. For him and his team, selling fruits and vegetables with greater transparency was just an opportunity waiting to happen.
“Farming is an emotional profession, and that’s why our relationship with our growers doesn’t end with our transaction; we keep working on other aspects like their farming outlays and crop plans to make sure that they can make a profit on their harvest,” he says.
At present, Ninjacart has more than 50,000 farmers under its umbrella in as many as 20 states, and supplies fresh produce to over 60,000 local groceries and restaurants in Chennai, Delhi, Gurugram, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Mumbai is temporarily out of service during the COVID-19 alert. Which in logistical terms, is around 1,400 tonnes of produce graded and delivered within 12 hours, using data analytics and technology.
Perhaps, the biggest game-changer has been the removal of the commission agent from the agri-business model. Says Thiru, “Besides increasing the farmer’s revenue by at least 20%, we also ensure freshness. From the time we get it from the farmers until when it reaches the retailers, the consignment is not touched.”
Ninjacart official Naveen Prakash Reddy showing the RFID tags fixed on the vegetable crates that will track their delivery from the centre to client seamlessly. Photo: Nahla Nainar/THE HINDU
MetroPlus had an opportunity to see the agritech company at work at a collection centre on Chikka Thirupathi Road in Bengaluru, a week before the COVID-19 alert was issued in March. The open-plan centre smells fresh, just like the greens that farmers from approximately 25 villages in the vicinity kept bringing in mini trucks for grading. “We have certain criteria for our produce, in terms of shape and weightage, which farmers have to adhere to, which is why we have a manual grading process,” says Ninjacart executive Naveen Reddy.
As we watch, a mini truck carrying capsicum and baby snake gourd gets readied for dispatch to retailers. Crates are fixed with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that help in seamless end-to-end operations. The consignment is weighed and a statement of accounts is given to the farmer. All payments are made by electronic transfer.
Large-size chillies being grown in a Ninjacart supplier farm along Chikka Tirupathi Road, Bengaluru. Photo: Nahla Nainar/THE HINDU
There are 14 such collection centres dotting Bengaluru, which Ninjacart considers to be its toughest market yet.
“Bengaluru is the horticulture hub of India. It is tougher for us to show a stark differentiation in the quality of the market and our product here, since so many fruit and vegetable farms are located close to the city. But having made an impact in Bengaluru has helped us replicate our business model in other cities,” says Thiru.
