Amazon Retail India enters Gujarat to source directly from farmers
In an endeavor to empower the farmers of Gujarat and offer high-quality fruits and vegetables to its customers, Amazon Retail India has launched its first collection center in Gujarat at Prantij. This collection center will assure farmers of fast payments, fair and transparent pricing, and guidance on farming. Additionally, this facility will be a channel to provide a source of various local and authentic varieties of fruits and vegetables to the customers such as guava, sapota, pomegranate, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, potatoes and bhindi. The collection center located at Majra Chokdi, was inaugurated on 14th June in the presence of Shri Dinesh Patel, Deputy Director Horticulture, Govt of Gujarat and Shri Baka Bhai Patel, Sarpanch Tajpur village and 150+ farmers.
Rajesh Prasad, Category Leader, Amazon Retail India said, “Our mission is to enable local farmers across the region to leverage the online marketplaces and become a part of the digital economy. With this launch, and expansion of our collection center network, we are positioned to procure the freshest and best quality local produce from farmers and deliver it to our customers. We are also working with FPOs in Gujarat and have already registered over 120 farmers to sell their produce at the collection center. As we grow, we continue to learn more about farmers and the supply chain and are working towards building the infrastructure and state of the art technologies that help simplify the end-to-end value chain from our farms to customers.”
Shri Dinesh Patel, Deputy Director Horticulture said, “We welcome Amazon in Gujarat and are very happy that Prantij has been chosen for the state’s first collection center. We want our farmers to ensure high quality fruits and vegetables using minimal pesticides to get higher realization. Department of Horticulture will support Amazon in bringing organic farmers to collection center and enabling better quality of fruits and vegetables.”
The Prantij collection center has a robust temperature-controlled supply chain infrastructure that provides high-quality locally grown fresh fruits, leafies and vegetables. After sourcing the produce from Farmers, Amazon Retail India uses technology enabled capabilities at its collection center to inspect the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables, and thereafter continuously monitors it at multiple stages. The fresh fruits and vegetables are then sent to the processing centers where they are sorted, graded, geo-tagged, and packaged in different sizes in well-aerated sustainable packaging to ensure freshest quality grade produce is send to Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers located closer to customers.
