Ready-to-eat products are often referred to as “convenience food”, for the convenience they provide to the hectic life of people. They are readymade food or almost readymade food that just requires boiling.

Depending on the process of production and packaging, they are segmented into canned food, frozen food, and chilled food. And because the major drivers of the market are not specific to any region but are globally influencing the market, hence ready-to-eat meal products market is fast growing uphill and has become the largest market in the food industry, globally.

After the lockdown for several months during the pandemic of Covid-19, people are at home and not going outside for eating due to closed markets, shops as well as restaurants and also because of the fear of Covid-19, people are cooking at home, hence increase in the demand for ready- to-eat products.

The industry increases the production of ready-to-eat products due to consumer demand like curries/ meals, batters, instant mixes, desserts as well as frozen snacks. Demand for frozen snacks has increased from 25 to 30% after post-Covid-19 than pre-Covid-19 time.

The increase in new distribution channels of the ready-to-eat products is also a reason behind the rise in the sale. Haldiram’s, which earlier sold its ready-to-eat products through Amazon and Flipkart, has now tied up with Swiggy and Zomato to market its products.  ITC too has tied up with Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo and Scootsy to expand its presence while also introducing ITC-On-Wheels, a mobile store that offers a range of the company’s products to consumers at their doorsteps.

The trend of manufacturing healthy, protein-rich, and non-fried snacks has gathered momentum in recent times of Covid-19. People have been quite receptive to the idea of consuming non-fried and high-protein snacks, majorly to cultivate healthy habits.

Furthermore, the availability of protein chips in various flavours has also helped in attracting a larger consumer base. Innovation and perpetual development are the watchwords for vendors operating in the global ready-to-eat snacks market. It is worthwhile to analyse the business strategies of the leading players currently operating in the market.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, some students do not go home and stay in a hostel which order mainly ready-to-eat food like frozen & chilled ready meals, canned ready meals, dried ready meals, ready-to-eat popcorn hence demand for this products will be increased.

But sometime during lockdown the suppliers cannot supply the demand of the consumer due to lack of workers, transport and hence the availability in the market is less this hampers the economy of the ready-to-eat industry.

Retailers say that they have seen a growth of 60-70 per cent in the ready-to-eat and frozen foods space in the last two months. In April and May, demand for these products had doubled. Revenues of ready-to-eat food products company iD Fresh is increasing by 20% month-on-month since April last year. In March 2020, their sales hit Rs 24 crore against the average of Rs 20 crore. This is when the company had limited production as they were selling only staple products such as idli and dosa batter, paneer, and chapattis. All other options such as vada batter had been stopped.

There are times when they would like to put a meal together from scratch but at other times they would want something quicker, minus the chores. This is where ready-to-eat is seeing increasing demand. The spike in demand and the lack of products from established players opened up the doors for small- and mid-sized players who had a reasonable local presence and were able to get products to stores on time. This accelerated the consumption of ready-to-eat in India.

Sahil Gilani, director, sales and marketing, Gits Food Products, echoes the sentiment. He says that their ready-to-eat meals category such as dal makhani, matar paneer, rajma masala became a hit during lockdown. The ready-to-consume meals are largely driven by exports, bought by Indian diaspora, or Indians travelling abroad. They are not bought as much because of the perception that they are unhealthy. They have a longer shelf life due to the use of retort technology where high temperature is used to increase shelf life.

A lot of these misconceptions would have got busted during this time. As they would have tried them during Covid lockdown and liked it; many would continue using the products. Sales during the lockdown doubled than earlier. The ready-to-eat category will become a necessity and an essential and will no longer be seen as a discretionary spends.