Digital Transformation of Indian Fisheries Supply Chain
Resinnov Blue is the flagship project of FERI Trust, through which we strive to attain digital transformation of the sector along with socio-economic benefits for multiple stakeholders.
Indian seafood industries could avail our services for enhancing their business, while fish farmers and fishermen could ensure efficient market linkages through our e-trading solutions. The other supply chain players could also benefit through being part of the e-trading process.
The Resinnov Blue project of FERI Trust incubated through ICAR – CIFT, Kochi HQs has developed two online platforms aimed towards digital transformation of national fisheries supply chain.
E-Auction for Fisheries: An online fish auction platform and another for upgradation of fish shops has been developed. The stock quality checks will be performed in the supply chain through ICAR - CIFT sensory attribute assessment procedures or ranking method.
Online Auction platform shall be the alternative to the physical auctions at landing centres, wholesale trade centres or farms. Fish farmers, fishermen, boatowners, auctioneers, wholesalers and retailers can be the stakeholders of the online auction platform. This is the first national instance of introducing Online Auction integrated with 4 types of auctions in the Indian fisheries supply chain. The Incremental, Reserved and Automatic mode of auctions are made available for the sellers, whereas Reverse Auction feature is provided exclusively for the buyers to get competitive bids from multiple sellers for bulk orders. Auction duration could be set to several minutes, hours or days.
E-Retailer Network: The e-commerce website developed for fish retailers enables the regional shops to have their online presence near the customer’s location. The website makes use of the O2O (Online to Offline) commerce concept, where in online customers shall be attracted to make purchase through nearby physical fish shops with options for home delivery of cleaned fishes. The retailers could also avail their stocks through the developed online auction platform.
The digital transformation initiative for fisheries supply chain envisage to solve the low catch price concerns for the fishermen communities, as well as focus to develop demand cluster through network of digital retailers for effective market linkages and quality assurances. Physical auctions inherit the problem of sales options restricted to few stakeholders physically present at the harbour, whereas the online auction platform extends the reach to more buyers beyond the physical boundaries. Lack of brand support, quality assurance of fish stocks and non-familiarity with the e-commerce platforms are among the issues faced by the small fish retailers, which shall be resolved through the project intervention.
Launching of E-platforms by ICAR-CIFT Director
The digital interventions could facilitate more freedom of sales, responsible sourcing and quality checks in the fisheries supply chain. The e-platforms shall be managed through the incubated Resinnov Blue project. During the field surveys, the fishermen of Chellanam, Kochi had expressed interest to be part of the online trading options, so that it shall address their concerns of low price for the fish catch. Further, many fish retailers are willing to be onboarded to the digital network, so as to upgrade their competence and sustenance. ICAR – CIFT could play a key role to ensure quality practices throughout the supply chain and to bring digital transformation of the highly inorganized fisheries sector in a phased manner.
Media coverage on the Resinnov Blue project
We are open for collaborations or partnerships for implementation of the e-solutions of the project PAN India.