Analysis of the supply chain and consumer preference study of apples

Abstract

The apple trade industry can be broadly categorized into those dealing with Indian and imported apples. The supply chain of these two varieties of apples differ considerably chiefly due to different originating points. The trade margins also differ vastly among them. As a result of this the price structure of Indian imported apples are very different. The current market research project is aimed at study of the supply chain of imported apples to Ahmedabad; study of supply into the decision criteria while purchasing apples which are a frequent purchase commodity. Some of the salient findings of this study are: The Indian and imported apple supply tend to complement each other in the Ahmedabad trade area (month wise supply data of Indian apples is analyzed for four years). As the Indian apple supply is mainly from July to December of each year and the imported apple trade is high from January to July. In the present project we attempted to study the supply chain of the imported apples coming to Ahmedabad from Mumbai. Though the end retailer is same for both of the varieties the supply chains are very different. Even the price structure for both of them varies considerably. Two consumer surveys, one involving consumers who visited the traditional food festival at IIM Ahmedabad and the other consisting of students from IIM Ahmedabad have been conducted. The surveys are classified in such a way to find out the difference in consumer perceptions before and after consumption of apples. Analysis of the responses revealed that the main attributes which influence the purchase making decision are.