“I think we are in a transition phase when it comes to large supply chains. While old industries are now going into the automotive phase, there are other components still operating at fairly high levels of inefficiency. We measure that supply chain and trade with efficiency and responsiveness. Due to a lot of inefficiencies in the supply chain, such as in price volatility, the system can break — something we experienced with tomatoes this time,” he said, speaking at Public Affairs Forum of India’s PAFI’s 10th Annual Forum 2023 in New Delhi on Thursday.
Therefore, a demand-led supply chain is important, and it is possible to increase efficiency and responsiveness using technology. He pointed out that success has been seen in certain commodities, wherein farmers are not only able to plan better for their harvest but can also predict demand more accurately. “Further, to improve the supply chain, our logistics costs — said to be about 12-14% currently — needs to be deflated about 6-7%,” Jayaraman said.
Another enabler here can be democratisation of information access and digitisation of money. Entities have to go digital and also enable farmers who are part of the supply chain to do it, he added.
