NOVEMBER 20169The behaviour of the average consumer of snacks is changing from just relying on it for taste to using it as a quick meal supplementby people who are passionate to create something unique and previously un-explored due to the scale of these larg-er companies. Their limited resources and scale makes them uniquely suit-able to innovate quickly and disrupt an otherwise unhealthy vertical in the FMCG category.To keep their products healthy and fresh, many of these startups have moved closer to their source of raw ingredients. Be it next to the farmers providing them raw produce, or these companies themselves growing a part of their needs on their own premises, the distance raw ingredients travel from harvest to production facility has been getting shorter and shorter each year. More and more startups have re-alised the benefits of controlling and monitoring the entire supply chain. A large part of the focus of these compa-nies, beyond the healthy and the taste aspects of their product is the environ-mental impact of its production. Each step of production, from procurement of grains/produce, to final packaging, what materials to use, what kind of shelf life will they provide, what part of it can be recycled and what part of it cannot be, is optimised to use less and less energy and resources. What cannot be changed is looked at as a challenge for the future, looking at ways of making each step less re-source intensive with each change.These practices don't just stop at the level of the product; they are also trying to make the lives of those in-volved in production better, enabling their vendors and producers to get better prices for their produce, giving their employees and contractors a shot at bettering their livelihood while be-ing a part of something that doesn't exploit their needs. These companies regularly run programs to enable pro-ducers to form collectives, so that it becomes easier for them to negotiate prices, procure implements to mod-ernise farming, and share knowledge so as to get the best possible yields. They regularly conduct awareness programs in the cities to make con-sumers aware of the benefits of shift-ing to healthier alternatives and to dis-ambiguate myths about certain types of foods. The food industry, for decades has been driven by misinformation about certain ingredients and their benefits. A lot of mislabelling has been used by food companies to keep their ingredi-ents, production techniques and health repercussions shrouded. Certain in-gredients, when thought to be harm-less turned out to be detrimental to health, and certain types of ingredients that were considered harmful have proven to be necessary. The smaller firms have to constantly navigate this landscape of misinformation and find ways of educating their customers on what is healthy and what isn't. Considering the amount of inno-vation happening in food production itself, these companies have to con-stantly update themselves and their consumers on the changes in the in-dustry. Better design and cleaner com-munication systems of today help with this need immensely. The aware con-sumer is also looking to learn more about what they eat, and where it comes from. In many other instances, they like to engage with these producers to know more and make more informed choices. After all these changes to the product and the production and distri-bution process, one of the biggest hur-dles in the growth of these companies is the distribution model most retail-ers are used to. These brands run on the economy of scale and a system of credit that smaller manufacturers can-not afford to extend. Though modern trade retailers are aware of these and try to collaborate with these startups and producers in any capacity, that they can to ensure their end customers get the healthiest and tastiest snack money can buy, we still have a long way to go before limited supply and smaller scale producers will be able to compete with global giants.
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