How Technology is Streamlining the Unorganised Indian Meat & Poultry Industry Let's discuss how with technology customers can be provided the freshest stock in the quickest possible time, without any unpleasant experiences

India has recently regained its title as the fastest growing economy in the world, surpassing China. A report by Central Statistical Office (CSO) stated that the Indian economy has regained its momentum with a GDP growth of 7.2% in the December quarter of 2017-18. This rapid growth can be attributed to the implementation of better policies and use of technology across different industries. These policies and tech applications are driven towards streamlining the many unorganized domains in the country and organizing them in a fashion that further accelerates overall economic growth for India.

Amongst these unorganized industries is the Indian meat and poultry segment which has been in the need for tech intervention for many years now. To bridge this gap and empower buyers, a handful of new-age businesses like have already started harnessing technology to ensure access to the freshest stock in the quickest possible time, without any unpleasant experiences for customers.

Here is a closer look at a few ways in which technology is transforming the operations in this unorganized space and helping it realize its true potential:

• Ensuring Automation and Scaling

Kicking off a startup is easy but scaling can be quite challenging, especially if it's done manually. Successful startups endeavouring to bring a change in the unorganized poultry industry have to keep up with the changing wants and needs of customers on a regular basis. Technology can be leveraged for automation to simplify the workflow. A good algorithm, when properly tested, can not only reduce the chances of error to a rare minimum, it can also help the process attain almost any scale. Combine that with algorithms from AI, and we have a well-oiled machinery that is not only capable of massive scaling but can also study the user-buying patterns for giving them a highly customised experience.

• Regulating End-to-end Solutions

Technology enables businesses across sectors to keep a complete track of all processes and individuals at each stage of the product's journey. For the highly unorganized meat industry which is dominated by local butchers and suppliers, technology is enabling new-age businesses to work closely with the farmers to ensure that the meat is raised right. Once the meat reaches its processing unit, it is segregated under different sections for packaging under hygienic conditions. A robust tech platform enables in efficiently managing the demand and delivering only the freshest produce in the quickest possible time to customers.

• Shortening the Delivery Timeline

It becomes quite challenging for startups in the meat and poultry business to deliver the product through the crowded city streets of India in a timely fashion. They are striving to achieve a combination of speed and efficiency by using technology that can help in managing an army of delivery boys and providing better navigation tools that can help the field staff in handling the deliveries in the quickest possible time. Consumers are also enabled to track their orders in real time.

• Enabling Web and Mobile Orders

Considering the unhygienic conditions at many of the local butcher shops, a majority of customers find it rather uncomfortable to visit such places to buy meat and poultry. On-demand meat delivery startups are creating a disruption here through the use of dedicated websites and mobile apps which customers can use to place their orders. They are enabling people to order their choice of high-quality meat from the comfort of their homes or offices and have it delivered to their desired location without being worried about the standardization or freshness of the meat.

• Allowing Businesses to Forecast Demand

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to grow exponentially every year across all industries. Although it is already being used to make logistics and information systems efficient and transparent, it also holds the potential to solve many issues like optimizing meat deliveries by forecasting the future demand. Online meat delivery platforms have their inbuilt demand forecasting engine that helps them in predicting the future demand to plan the logistics and stock well in advance. AI in combination with data analysis techniques can increase efficiency and broaden the reach in order to improve consumer engagement.

• Opening Up Multiple Payment Options for Consumers

In their bid to standardize the highly unorganized meat industry in the country, meat delivery startups are also rolling out multiple payment options for consumers. They are leveraging technology to introduce unified, simplified and fast payment options for users so that they can pay for their orders seamlessly, without staying constrained only to cash payments.

• Contributing Towards Deciding New Locations for Expansion

Thanks to advance technologies like machine learning, businesses today have access to an unprecedented amount of data on their consumers' present and past buying and browsing preferences. This includes transactional data, website traffic and even social media habits. Predictive algorithms use this data to make interpretations about what is likely to happen in the future and using these predictions, new-age meat delivery startups are able to study the demand from a particular area and leverage the same for expansion.

• Providing Authority Based Data for Efficient Production

Typically, the meat and poultry farms have machines that are operated manually. This makes it difficult to control and manage the required levels of temperature that might cause damage to the output or even create hygiene issues. Technology is solving the production inefficiencies in this industry, which is very dependent on labour. By automating and digitizing it, it is giving real-time data on the temperature, humidity and other required parameters at the farms. This enables the farms in increasing their efficiency.