Your dudhwala vanished and soon so will your butcher – no fresh milk anymore, and soon, no fresh cut meat either. And rightfully so!
I recently read an article that said that the poultry industry in India is a giant loss making machine primarily because the market is still 95% disorganized wet trade. Disorganized Wet means that 95% of chicken purchased at the retail level is freshly cut and sold locally…which implies that all the cost efficiencies of mass production, cold storage and nation-wide distribution are virtually non-existent – and the slightest hiccup – weather, transport, strike – in the farm to fork food chain promptly results in wastage and mind-numbing loss. The poor chicken farmer is at the mercy of the wholesale buyer who controls the last mile to the consumer’s doorstep. Oversupply, without the attendant benefit of cold storage, implies immediate loss. An unsold, live chicken continues to consume feed till it is killed and then by the time it is sold, it has cost more to produce than its sale can ever earn. Ideally, upon reaching optimum size, the chicken should have been cut, frozen and packaged and shipped out to any outlet anywhere in the country.
This is what FDI in Retail will do. It will convert us from fresh cut meat consumers to frozen, packaged meat consumers – and it will be cheaper, safer and most importantly, it will finally make the chicken farmer prosper!
While we can romanticize our past and get nostalgic about the dhobhi, dudhwala and postman, the fact is that all these industries and professions have been completely swamped and overwhelmed by mass production and new technology. We didn’t hear any protest in parliament when all this was happening. It just happened, gradually and inevitably.
Progress implies mass production and distribution of goods and services at increasingly lower costs. Add technological advances to that and you have a new world order emerging. It may not seem a big deal to us in the big cities, but vastly improved distribution systems will take progress to every nook and cranny of the country. Progress implies that we raze and raise – industries, structures, cultures and consumption patterns – and that incumbents will fall in the face of new challengers. Much is made about the plight of small trader and farmer, about your neighbourhood mom and pop store but the reality is that all incumbents, both big and small, in every industry, are in equal danger of extinction. Irrespective of size, it is only the nimble footed and quick-witted who will survive and the lumbering and obstinate who will die. Any change creates losers and winners – it’s just the way of life. Nature doesn’t recognize good and evil…just balance and imbalance…and presently, the food chain in India is seriously imbalanced!
On frozen chicken – you will hear the argument that as consumers Indians don’t trust packaged meat and prefer freshly cut, hence the reason for the wet market. As a child, I remember having a milkman come home at five in the morning and pouring out a litre of fresh milk for my mom. While there was often the swirl of suspicion around diluted, watered down milk, my mother was fixated about fresh milk, her having grown up drinking that. I’m not sure when but the milkman gradually vanished and was replaced by packaged milk. We didn’t notice, we didn’t care, mom didn’t protest, it just happened. The White Revolution was applauded, Mr. Kurien became a living legend and Amul went on to become the greatest commercial enterprise in its category.
FDI in Retail is no different from the White Revolution which converted the Disorganized Fresh Milk market into a preserved and packaged Milk & Milk Products Industry. If that was good for millions of milk farmers and millions of consumers, creating a valuable commercial entity in the process, why should modern retail be any different? It dramatically reduced food prices in the US – shouldn’t we welcome that here? The only downside to cheap food is obesity…but better to be well fed and obese than hungry, starving and slim 🙂
My kids know nothing about cows and milk beyond what they learn in school. Their kids will know nothing about fresh cut chicken. It’s just progress!
SAMEER NAIR 