Technology’s influence on the food industry has been tremendously growing over the years. A recent analysis by Emergen Research has projected the global food tech market to reach a value of USD 342.52B by 2027. According to their report, revenue from the market in the Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a rapid rate during the forecast period, as there is an increasing purchasing power and changing lifestyle of consumers in countries in the region, which has boosted the adoption of online food and grocery purchase and delivery options. For instance, from 2011 to 2018, USD 10.8B have been invested in the Indian food tech economy, compared to USD 688 M in France. In 2017 alone, Indian food tech startups got an investment of USD 4.8B. Major players like Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, Jubilant Foods, Freshmenu, and Licious have seen considerable growth in their userbase, which has inspired many more to explore this market.
Rapid digitization and a consistently growing consumption multiplied the reach of food tech aggregators between 2017-2019 by six times, according to a report by Google and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). However, the beginning of the pandemic was not so good for the food delivery companies. The market experienced a setback, as the frequency of online food ordering declined initially due to multiple reasons such as consumers’ concern about their health and the fall in the availability of delivery agents. The extension of nationwide lockdown was a blessing in disguise for this industry, as more and more people shifted from conventional retail markets to online food deliveries, which created newer groups of customers and higher profits.
Now, food tech has emerged as one of the fasted growing industries in India, and it is redefining the way we consume eat. In this special issue, we have covered opinions, insights and ideas of experts, leaders, and foodies on the topic, Food and Tech. This is our effort to identify trends, challenges and opportunities in the food tech industry that our readers are keen to know more about.
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