Lessons from Online Retail Data on Our Food Supply

Context: Potential of online data must be harnessed in overcoming lockdown induced disruptions in food supply chain (specially perishables) and unavailability of credible data.

Food Supply Chain Disruptions 

• Online Retail Data has revealed that amid lockdown, supply chain of perishables was more disrupted than the non-perishables.
• Supply chain disruption of perishables can lead to losses for producers (farmers: spoilage risk and less prices due to transportation hurdles) and consumers (shortages).

Reasons

• Lockdown involved restrictions on inter-state transportation and lower labour availability.
• Absence of timely and credible data to track the disruptions.
• Inadequate warehousing facilities. 

Way Forward

• Amid lockdown, efficient implementation of policies and schemes (like to know the effect of deregulation of certain commodities) requires data analysis, hence online data is an efficient option in absence of credible data.