Ready-To-Eat & Ready-To-Cook Foods Are The New Normal

by Shatakshi Gupta

People are doing work from home due to COVID-19 crisis.  During this time, they are not only fulfilling their hobby of cooking in the kitchen but are also enjoying ready-to-cook food at home.  This has led to a significant increase in sales of ‘ready-to-cook’ and ‘ready-to-eat’ food products in the April-June quarter.

The sales of readymade paratha grew by 60% over the previous quarter.  At the same time, the sale of ready-to-eat meat products and seafood has increased by more than 300%.  Sales of ready-to-eat kebabs, marinated meats and seafood have increased two-fold.

 Consumer spending had increased by 61% in April to June. According to Redseer Consulting and Research, consumer spending on home cooking increased by 61% in the April to June quarter.  The main reason for this is the low availability of food outside the home amid increasing Coronavirus infection.  In the ready-to-cook segment, sales of ‘Idli’ batter and cheese have shown an increase.

Also read: Here are some storage tips to keep your food pathogen-free during Covid-19

Sales of such items at ID Fresh, a Bengaluru based company grew by 20% in the previous quarter.  According to experts in this field, the number of people making food at home has increased drastically in the last three months.  Due to the fast-spreading infection in the country, customers are looking for better quality and safer food products.

 Amul launches turmeric milk, panchamrit and ras malai.  Amul’s sales of packaged sweets like rasmalai have increased.  Amul is setting up a new plant for the production of items that until now were partially made by third parties.  Products that Amul has launched in the last few months include sweets like turmeric milk, panchamrit, ras malai and gulab jamun.

 Business doubled from e-commerce companies. PC Mustafa, the co-founder of ID Fresh, says our business has doubled from e-commerce companies like Big Basket.  Sales of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat items on their online platform grew 1.7-fold, according to Saurabh Kumar, co-founder of Grofers.