Food service

India’s Food Service Industry in India was estimated at Rs 423,865 cr in 2018-19; the industry provides employment to around 7.3 mn people and this is anticipated to reach 9.2 mn in 2022-23.

The Indian Food and Beverage (F&B) service Industry is one of the most vibrant industries that has seen unprecedented growth in the recent past and continues to expand rapidly. This can be attributed to the changing demographics, increase in disposable incomes, urbanisation and growth of organised retail.

The Food Services sector is expected to have generated direct employment for 5.5-6 million people in FY16, which is expected to increase to 8.5-9 million by FY21. Indirect employment has seen a growth at CAGR of four per cent from 2013-2016 and expected to grow six per cent till 2021. The Indian food industry is poised for huge growth, increasing its contribution to world food trade every year. In India, the food sector has emerged as a high-growth and high-profit sector due to its immense potential for value addition, particularly within the food processing industry.

India’s overall retail opportunity is substantial, and coupled with a demographic dividend (young population, rising standards of living and upwardly mobile middle class) and rising internet penetration; strong growth in retail & e-Commerce is expected. The Indian government’s ambitious Make in India, Digital India, and Start up India project is indeed giving a great stimulus to the Food Services retail sector.

The Food Services sector, comprising of hundreds of thousands of businesses that include street hawkers, small independent eateries that dot India’s urban and rural landscape, highway dhabas, as well the regional and national giants (Indian & multinational) plays an extremely vital socioeconomic role in India. It provides a very dignified way to earn a livelihood for millions of Indians who otherwise would be hard pressed to make a living, succor to millions of migrants who have come to major urban centers looking for better prospects and not having the comfort of a home or the luxury of time to cook a daily meal for themselves, meet the food needs of hundreds of millions of highway, railways, and air travelers, provide social meeting and entertainment options to millions of young (and not so young) upwardly mobile Indians, and creates an informal but very important “supply chain” between the small farmers and other producers of food and related products especially and the end consumers.