Bengaluru: Flipkart today has extended its partnerships with farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to enable market access and growth for farming communities and boost access to staples on the marketplace platform.
According to a press release, Flipkart is working with multiple entities such as Nisarga Farmers Producer Company in Gulbarga, Aranyak Agri Producer Company in Purnia and Satya Sai Farmer Federation in Anantpur among others. Flipkart also partnered with other social sector organizations 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 have been able to generate increased incomes for farmers and support these communities in their business growth.
The vice president of Flipkart grocery, Smrithi Ravichandran, said, “Over the past year, we have intensified our focus on partnering with 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 bringing greater market opportunities to farmer communities across the country.”
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, stated the release.
The CEO of the foundation for the development of rural value chains, Alok De said, “As a joint initiative of the ministry of rural development we aim to empower women farmers to create efficient market linkages for their agricultural and non-farm products. In this endeavour, we are looking forward to a strong partnership with Flipkart to support income generation for farmers while ensuring assurance of quality.”
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.