Biz booming, thanks to Covid: MyFoodXpert

NEW DELHI: While the Indian production and innovation capacities are reaching new heights, one of the realities remains the same that the business potential of Tier 2 cities are yet to be fully unlocked. On one hand central government schemes such as Credit Linked Capital Subsidy for Technology Upgradation, StartUp India, Software Technology Park (STP) Scheme have been launched to specifically assist new businesses. The Hans India spoke with Monica Yadav, Founder and CEO of MyFoodXpert on the lack of arrangements and support for the food industry in Southern India

EXCERPTS from the interview. Food industry has received a massive demand in India, and with this promotion and investments in this industry segment. How has this led to an increase in demand for your company's services?

Before Covid, the same company (MyFoodXpert) was having hardly 10-15 enquiries per month. Now we get 3 business enquiries a day after Covid. The only reason is because after the lockdown period, everyone is depending upon packed food. By the time it reaches the metro cities, these packed foods get spoiled. This is because we are lacking in preservation methods. In India, we mostly cook and eat. So, when the lockdown suddenly happened everybody started ordering online, especially in cities.

During the first wave of Covid (2020), I was four months pregnant and realised that due to the pandemic situation, I was not getting an easier access to healthy food. I couldn't get high nutrition food and vegetables.

So, I imported berries but soon came to the realization that within the country we can grow seasonal fruits, at a much lesser cost than importing. Importing this same food includes import value, logistics, production and packaging.

What are your thoughts on the current situation of the warehousing situation for packed food in India?

The government really needs to do more for the food industry in terms of storage facilities. If they don't provide a facility to store fresh food, where would the farmer go? He or she cannot take that bulk. If we produce tons and tons of food and don't have adequate space to store and to sell, what do we do with that produce?

What has been the demand of packed food from the Tier 3 cities and villages in comparison to metropolitan cities were usually the demand for preserved, packed food is higher?

It is not about the village or the city. It is about operations. Whether it is a skilled labour or a village person who can be trained and engaged in the job (food preservation & packaging). A proper suitable packaging and suitable regulatory compliance on the packaged food can do any kind of business.

Visakhapatnam has a good coastline but why are we unable to increase exports? We are doing so much of exports of bakeries and sweets from only Hyderabad? We send containers to Mumbai, Vizag or Chennai. But why aren't we sending containers from Vizag to other places? There is a lack of awareness and knowledge on business operations, certifications, regulatory compliance is needed, and what kind of shelflife food has?

This is where MyFoodXpert comes in. First two years I could see that people, such as in the hotel industry, had no awareness on food consultation. There is so much technology involved from the beginning which is designing recipe, packaging, labour and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for storage, dispatch whether it is domestic or international.

What are the business challenges you are facing currently?

The biggest challenge is funds issue. If one has 10% capital, and the government says they will give 40 per cent to 50 per cent subsidy, to get approval itself it takes a long time. By the time the government fund gets granted, their existing capital will be exhausted, hence business operations will stop. Even if we are charging the project cost, the person might be lacking documentation to get the grants. And by the time a government fund is released to that company, their own capital is already over.

So, how does one unlock these benefits or subsidies?

Even if they upload documents on the government portal, where is the promotion of these subsidies? Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) is a big letter. How many people know there is such a scheme? Government is giving subsidies to women, SC/ST communities, minorities, but who knows about this.Government should look into it.