1. India’s meat market was INR 330k cr. in 2019, likely to be INR 460k+ Cr. by 2024

​Overall meat market, INR ‘000 Cr., 2015, 2019, 2024F

Overall meat market split by category, 2019

Note: Meat market includes fish (freshwater and seafood), poultry (bird meat, ex-eggs) mutton (goat & lamb meat), pork, and beef

While India’s overall meat market was Rs 330k crore GMV in 2019, the market is set to grow to more than Rs 460k+ by 2024. 70%+ of the Indian population consumes meat in some form. This is particularly prominent in Eastern & Southern India – for instance, 98%+ of West Bengal’s and Andhra Pradesh’s population consumes meat. Fish is the most consumed form of meat.

2. The broader meat market is primarily unorganized, while online is fairly nascent with a market size of INR 700 Cr in 2019

Market split by channel, % of sales, 2019

The broader meat market has been largely unorganized but online is growing fast. Especially, super verticals like Licious and Fresh to Home have quickly gained prominence. Even verticals like Big Basket are upping their meat game. Success of online meat providers is due to vertically integrated supply chains with high bars on quality. Also, the players have innovated to provide consumers a wide set of offerings, and attracted them through highly relevant and contextual marketing.

3. Online players are growing by solving the key problems that consumers face offline

Online players have successfully targeted consumer pain-points associated with purchasing meat from local butchers. Not only have they solved those issues, they have solved them by several orders of magnitude. For instance, the meat provided by online players is clean, without any stain of blood and has negligible odour. The online players also differentiate in terms of width of offerings – especially, ready-to-cook/ready-to-eat ones. The pieces are high quality, rich in nutritional benefits, and ideal for urban, young, working consumers.

4. As a result, online meat has grown 2.5-3x since COVID, with a large growth runway ahead

Online meat GMV recovery, Jan – Sep ‘20, % indexed Jan ‘20 = 100

Our research shows that the online meat market has grown 2.5-3x since Covid. This was driven by Covid-related apprehensions while purchasing from offline/local butchers. The online players effectively communicated their superior quality and hygiene practices, which boosted consumer confidence. Therefore, online players gained significant number of new users since Covid, even as existing users ordered more, which boosted volumes.