On Monday, Amazon Retail India announced the inauguration of a new “farmer collecting centre” in Maharashtra, where customers could directly buy fresh produce from farmers. After the centres at Manchar, Nasik, Wai, and Ratnagiri, the new centre in Kunjirwadi will be the fifth in the western state.
According to the official press release, Amazon’s farmer collection centres have a temperature-controlled supply chain infrastructure where fruits and vegetables are sorted, graded, geotagged, packaged in various sizes in sustainable packaging, and then trans-shipped to Amazon Fresh fulfilment centres after being purchased from framers.
With the help of the five farmer centres, Amazon Retail India claims to have a network of over 4,500 farmers and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and to be able to sell 120 fresh fruits and vegetables that are supplied straight from farms.
According to a press release, category leader at Amazon Retail India Rajesh Prasad said, “Our collection centres are also the nodal point for extending services beyond procurement, which includes various training programmes, providing agri inputs support to enhance farmers productivity, knowledge sharing, and enabling technology adoption.”
