Building a Playbook for your Farm to Fork business

by Naveen Lamghare

Are you looking to set-up a Farm to Fork business? And if so, are you wondering where to start from? There are quite a few players who have ventured into this space today, but a decade ago, there were none. When we started our journey at Ninjacart 8 years ago, we were faced with a similar problem – how do we solve the complex problems in the Agri supply chain. And most importantly, from where do we begin?

Fast forward to today, Ninjacart is India’s largest Tech Platform for Sourcing and distribution of fresh farm produce, spread over 8 major cities, 40+ towns with a network of over 200 warehouses. This sustainable ecosystem connects 1,00,000 farmers to 80,000 retailers & wholesalers and empowers over 20,000 transport partners to move over 1500 tonnes of produce daily. And like Rome wasn’t built in a day, our success wasn’t achieved overnight.

When Ninjacart was founded in 2015, there was no precedent for any Fulfilment business in the emerging or developing economies that had made its mark. There was no one to draw inspiration from. In a world without a blueprint for executing such a model, we created one from scratch.

We dared to venture beyond the impossible, to find the place where the possible and impossible meet.  And after 8 years of our diligent efforts in this business, we achieved the ‘possimpible’ – we built the perfect Playbook for a Farm to Form business. And we are looking to pass on this ‘book of wisdom’, containing all the secrets to those who are worthy. Enough metaphors?, let’s get back to basics.

What IS this Playbook?

It is a collection of all our learnings and knowledge in the past decade of building a profitable, sustainable Farm to fork fulfilment business in an diverse unregulated Agri sector that is synonymous with most emerging markets.

How can this benefit YOU?

With this Playbook, you can have easy access to:

• Key Business Metrics & KPIs – proven and tested operational and functional models to track performance, earnings, pricing. inventory and returns
• Extensive Operational Planning – providing flexibility and scalability for your F&V Supply Chain based on different stages of tonnage, capacity and growth
• Plug & Play Setup for Expansion – reduce your go-to-market time with an asset-light business model. Create a best-fit warehousing ecosystem as per your need
• Automation ready Checks for Tracking – track each order as it passes through various stages of the Supply Chain with real time Profit & Loss (P&L). Know the right time to invest in automation to maximize ROI
• Tested Workflows – limit dependency on people, training costs avoiding manual errors, no pen & paper needed
• Predefined Library of Control – to avoid frauds, process deviations and mitigate known & anticipated business risks
• Process Governance Framework – avoid reinventing the wheel while creating your organization structure with fine-tuned processes and established SOPs
• Workforce Management – create and manage an optimized workforce of sourcing team, sales function, operations, logistics, control & category teams.

                            Fig. Tenets of a Farm to Fork Business Playbook

Do I REALLY need this?

Well, yes! Imagine the time and energy that you would otherwise spend on building a sustainable Supply chain ecosystem in a cut-throat narrow margin Agri-supply business. There are a lot of critical decisions that need to be taken – identifying the right procurement sources, managing farmer relationships, defining the price price points & percolation logic, SKU specifications, matching supply and demand, payment modes, handling customer returns, waste management, warehouse locality & layout planning, labor and asset planning, fleet management – to own or to outsource, operational, order taking & delivery cut-offs etc. The list is never ending. You can instead focus these efforts towards increasing your efficiency, driving growth and profitability, defining your expansion strategy and aligning your goals to your vision. With the right tools and guidance, you can fast track your learning curve with our experience and define your own path to success. You can have all the answers that you’ll ever need.                   

This is AWESOME, where can I SIGN up?

This Playbook is bundled along with Ninjacart’s state of the art Supply chain tech and Consulting & Advisory services, under the Ninja Tech Ventures initiative. With our increasing global community of like minded startups and partners, we are making our technology, knowledge & experience open to all. Write to us at partnerships@ninjacart.com or come visit our page to know more.