| Abstract |
A small scale vegetable supply chain was designed and put in operation on the campus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Fresh vegetables were procured each day from the wholesale market of the APMC in the city. Produce was brought to the vegetable treatment unit (VTU).
Produce was sorted to a standard, washed, cleaned, trimmed, and packed in consumer packages. Each produce was put in two categories Ahmedabad-1 and Ahmedabad-2, labeled clean and fresh, and put on sale at the retail store.
VTU employed two women workers for four hours daily. It also had a manager who procured the produce and supervised processing and managed the sales counter. The unit operated for six days a week. On Sundays it was open till noon. Results of one year of operation were analyzed. Following conclusions have emerged:
• Quality oriented supply chain is a viable business, provided the techniques of washing, cleaning, etc. are done manually or with simple machines as developed for VTU.
• On an average the cost of transport and treatment works out to Rs. 4/kg, which tends to reduce with volume.
• Although the earnings per unit sale are reduced because of the added cost of treatment, there is increase in turnover that enables earning a small profit enough to make it sustainable.
• Present supply chain has made it possible to evolve parameters to scale up the operations and to launch larger units in the city.
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