Aadit Palicha, Co-founder & CEO, Zepto in a LinkedIn post addressed a long-standing challenge in Indian retail: fresh produce plagued by intermediaries, unpredictable pricing, and poor quality. Zepto has quietly scaled its fresh category 4x in just 12 months, from 6.4 lakh to 22.1 lakh units sold per day. Zepto now works directly with thousands of farmers across 70+ Collection Centres—strategically located hubs where produce is graded, packed, and dispatched within 12 hours of harvest.
Zepto has achieved this scale through direct sourcing, tech-led procurement, and smart last-mile handling—making fresh produce not just faster, but more accessible and affordable.
View of collection centres across cities
What makes this supply chain especially unique is the shift from transactional procurement to strategic partnerships with farmers. Zepto’s Bloom app, a proprietary sourcing intelligence platform, offers real-time mandi price benchmarks, automated vendor scoring, and dynamic procurement planning. This gives farmers transparency, better pricing power, and predictability—all of which were missing in the traditional mandi system.
For the first time, Indian farmers are becoming part of a demand-driven, digital-first ecosystem—with access to real-time market intelligence, input support, and guaranteed offtake through Zepto’s growing programs. By decentralising procurement, investing in farmer ecosystems, and embedding technology into every layer of the supply chain, Zepto is creating a new playbook for how fresh produce can move in India.
