Flipkart strengthens it's partnerships with FPOs in Andhra Pradesh & other states
- Working with multiple FPOs including Nisarga Farmers Producer Company in Gulbarga, Aranyak Agri Producer Company in Purnia and social sector organizations, among others
- FPOs to undergo product quality and food safety training to build sustainable and scalable partnerships on Flipkart
Flipkart is working with entities such as Aranyak Agri Producer Company Ltd. in Purnia, Bihar; Anchetty FPCL; Nisarga Farmers Producer Company Ltd. in Gulbarga; Satya Sai Farmer Federation in Anantpur, among others. Flipkart has also partnered with social sector organizations such as Andhra Pradesh Mahila Abhivruddhi Society (APMAS), Dvara, Foundation of Development of Rural Value Chains (FDRVC), Sahaja Aharam Producer Company (SAPCO), Sammunati, and Vrutti, among others to facilitate engagements with FPOs in their networks.
Through these partnerships, Flipkart has been able to source pulses, staples and whole spices, by bringing them onto its platform, in turn impacting thousands of livelihoods of the farmer community. These newer avenues, made possible through e-commerce and technology, have been able to generate increased incomes for farmers and support these communities in their business growth.
Smrithi Ravichandran, Vice President - Grocery, Flipkart, said, “Over the past year, we have intensified our focus on partnering with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and helping these farming communities to scale their offerings and benefit from the power of e-commerce and technology today. Our dedicated initiatives are solving for access to high-quality staples, pulses and spices on our marketplace platform while bringing greater market opportunities to farmer communities across the country. We want to continue building these deeper engagements that positively impact the livelihoods of millions of farmers and under-served communities across the country and increase their income.”
Alok De, CEO Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains, said, “As a joint initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development and Tata Trusts - FDRVC aims to empower women farmers to create efficient market linkages for their agricultural and non-farm products. In this endeavor, we are looking forward to a strong partnership with Flipkart to support income generation for farmers while ensuring assurance of quality, timely delivery of goods and remunerative pricing that will help enhance customer satisfaction. Recently, under this initiative, Hadoti Mahila Kisan Producer Company Limited (HMKPCL) located in Baran, Rajasthan did their first transaction of ‘whole coriander’ on Flipkart. This has instilled a lot of confidence in this community and we hope to bring more such farmer producer organizations under this initiative.”
In order to maintain high-quality standards on its marketplace platform, Flipkart has been arranging FPO visits to its packing and processing facilities (Regional Packaging Centers) across different regions to make them understand customer expectations in terms of product quality and food safety. The quality team maintains dedicated visits to these FPOs, arranging sessions with their representatives on food safety norms and training them on Flipkart's product quality standards. Flipkart strives to build partnerships that are sustainable and facilitate seamless transactions between Flipkart and farmers through these FPOs at a scale.
In the coming months, Flipkart is preparing to onboard FPOs linked with Vrutti, a non-profit organization in Karnataka that cater to the lives and livelihoods of over a million marginalized individuals/households, to bring pulse commodities such as Gulbarga - Toor, on its platform. Further, it will tap the upcoming paddy season to procure paddy/Rice from Koppal, Karnataka. Flipkart is working extensively to strengthen its supply chain and help build deeper engagements with such agencies and farmer communities.