As India reels under a fierce second wave of COVID and lockdown fears loom, RS Sodhi, GM of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) said that companies as well consumers are better prepared now and there is no panic buying.
“This time for the second wave, which is more impactful and worsening day by day, preparation at the company level and the consumer level are better. There is no panic buying because consumers know that essential good including food will be available,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
However, he said that demand is gradually going down and some product categories have been impacted as hotels and restaurants are shut.
“On demand side or purchase side, you can see few product categories which has been getting impacted with hotels and restaurants closing down. That demand has reduced by more than 50 percent compared to March. In other product categories we are seeing that gradually things are going down. So, demand is gradually going down,” he said.
Sodhi said that demand for essentials like milk and curd is not impacted, but they are seeing a slight decline in demand for items which are not as essential.
“Essential product like milk we are selling much more than last year same month — 20-25 percent more. But we could see some impact in demand because of people’s earnings have been reduced, but it is not major a thing,” he said.
“Categories like ice-creams, compared to last week of March or first week of April, demand has gone down by 30-40 percent whereas it should have increased by 20-30 percent because of summer. Same is in case of HORECA (hotels, restaurants,cafeteria) segment products. Butter, cheese demand has gone down 40-50 percent. So, overall food 2-3 percent impact has already come compared to the last week of March or first week of April,” he explained.
