Shadowfax’s Journey in Building a Strong Meat Supply Chain

The demand for meat and food delivery is rising globally, not just in traditional high-demand markets, but also in India. This requires the seafood and meat supply chain management to rise to the occasion. Shadowfax, India’s largest crowdsourced logistics platform, has forayed into the meat supply chain in the country, aiming to transform it using its tech-enabled solutions.

“Meat delivery involves a specialised method of delivery, where temperature control plays a key role. Since our processes and systems are agile in nature, we were able to optimise this in a short span and pass the optimised solutions to the entire meat category,” says Saurabh Sharma AVP — Business Development (Shadowfax NOW).

Figures around the Indian meat sector show that it is growing

Greater transparency about quality, direct sales to the end consumer, through online sales and contactless delivery have emerged as the key focus areas. Many Indian startups have made significant headway into the seafood and meat industry. Shadowfax has customised its services to drive the demand for its clients, helping their businesses in the long run.

Many Indian start-ups are making a significant headway in the industry

Here is a look at the process of using the food supply infrastructure adopted by Shadowfax for setting up a supply chain management system for fish and meat and delivery.

Take a look at how fresh meat travels from the farms to your table

Getting a Meat Supply Chain Up and Running

The first step that Shadowfax employed in the process was recognising the glaring challenges in the meat supply chain management, and then looking for a viable solution to plug these gaps.

Charting the course

Shadowfax rolled out their meat delivery services and soon covered 50k monthly orders in Bengaluru, and then scaled to three other cities, Hyderabad, Delhi and Pune, covering over one lakh monthly orders. Within two months, a full-fledged network of the meat supply chain was in place. An integral part of the process was training the delivery personnel to handle cold deliveries using gel packs, maintained and provided by merchants, and working within the timeframes specified by the clients.

Streamlining operations

The supply chain operations management was streamlined for seamless delivery of quality cuts. Clients handle the processing of meat, including slicing into different cuts and blast freezing them. Shadowfax then takes over the transfer and delivery of the meat given to them in sealed boxes with gel packs. The meat is then delivered to the different retail outlets, and from there to the end consumer, taking care of the middle- and last-mile supply chain requirements.

Challenges in the journey

Shadowfax was presented with a unique challenge — the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown posed a huge challenge as the journey commenced. Meat delivery took a hit as it was not considered an essential service. Several steps were taken to maintain a low delivery time from origin to customer. Rider acquisition drives were conducted and they were educated on safety measures to be taken for Covid-19. Shadowfax also set up a support fund for emergencies and partnered with the government to keep deliveries running.

This entire system rests on infrastructure and tech that handles two divergent forms of hyperlocal deliveries using a unified API. At present, Shadowfax is processing 20 to 25k orders per day and is gearing up for more in the days to come.