Fresh Food Supermarkets in the Indian Punjab: Organisation and Impacts

Abstract

Linking primary producers with global and national markets through modern corporate food retail supermarkets and other linkages is seen as one of the innovative ways to improve the livelihoods of small producers in developing countries. But, value chains driven by food supermarkets everywhere are, generally, found to exclude small farmers for various reasons. In this context, this paper examines the inclusiveness and effectiveness of fresh food supermarkets in linking farmers with end markets with the help of a case study of two major supermarkets in Punjab viz. Easy Day and Reliance Fresh based on a primary survey of growers of two major crops each. Using the evidence and inference from this study, a number of policy suggestions are proposed for better leveraging of food supermarket linkage for achieving smallholder inclusive crop diversification in Punjab.