40% of Crops Are Wasted Before Getting to Grocery Stores

Lahore-based business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, Tazah, is on a mission to make Pakistan’s agricultural supply chain more efficient and equitable.

This was stated by American entrepreneur and the host of the ‘Not from Silicon Valley’ podcast, David Zabinsky, on the subject of the impact of Pakistan’s agriculture industry on its GDP and how Tazah has emerged as a plausible contender for sourcing additional growth in the sector.

For starters, about 22 to 25 percent of Pakistan’s GDP comes from agriculture, which makes the industry worth between $60 and $100 billion. Secondly, 40 to 45 percent of Pakistan’s eligible workforce works in the agriculture industry, from farming to trading, to transportation and logistics, which is nearly 30 million people, the American entrepreneur highlighted.

He remarked, “So, with agriculture making up such an important part of Pakistan’s economy and even their social fabric, surely you’d think ‘groceries, they’d be accessible and affordable in Pakistan’, right? Well, wrong”.

Zabinsky explained that the farm-to-table supply chain in Pakistan is so inefficient and inequitable, and almost 40 percent of agricultural products are wasted, expired, or perished even before they reach grocery stores. Moreover, the price has gone up “four times” from being picked at a farm and being sold at the cash register. Consequently, with Pakistan having a GDP per capita of around $1,200 and with the price of groceries so disproportionately high to Pakistani’s earnings, they spend “30 percent of their disposable income on food items”.

What is most shocking is that despite how much of Pakistan is built on agriculture, it remains a net importer of agricultural products to this day. The situation of a gigantic industry with such massive problems has allowed Abrar Bajwa and Tazah to come in to make Pakistan’s agricultural supply chain more efficient and more equitable, in particular. In just five short months, their numbers are “unbelievable,” Zabinsky said.

 

Tazah has an active customer base of nearly 1,500 and a gross market value (GMV) of nearly $1 million. Zabinsky acknowledged how the startup has raised the biggest pre-seed in Pakistan’s history ($6.5 million),  and the impact it has had on farmers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers is “priceless” according to Zabinsky.

Tazah was started as a marketplace for businesses, especially micro-retailers, to acquire fresh produce sourced directly from farmers, sorted and graded at its warehouses, and then delivered to retailers.

The Lahore-based business-to-business (B2B) marketplace raised $4.5 million earlier in December 2021 in an extension of its pre-seed round to close a $6.5 million pre-seed funding in the largest pre-seed round to date in Pakistan. It aims to bridge the gap between businesses and stakeholders, such as farmers, and solve inefficiencies in the food and agriculture supply chain.



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