Cooperative major National Agricultural and Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) has drawn up plans to set up retail grocery outlets under a franchisee model. The company currently operates ten retail outlets under the name of Nafed Bazaar — eight in Delhi and two in Shimla. All of these are owned by the company. Nafed is also into institutional sales of grocery products to hospitals, hotels and government departments.

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“The board, in its meeting last week, has approved guidelines for appointment of Nafed franchisees. Certain individuals and companies have approached us with an inclination to become franchisees,” said U K S Chauhan, managing director of the board. Outlets under the franchisee model will also be named Nafed Bazaar. One of the important guidelines is that the franchisee will source all products only from Nafed.

Mumbai-based Omega Investment and Properties, which is a real estate player, and some businessmen have already expressed interest in becoming franchisees of the cooperative for Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

Nafed initially wants to focus on Delhi and adjoining towns, where it already has a developed supply chain, and later move to other cities. It eventually aims to expand across the country.

Nafed is a central government agency engaged in procurement, processing, distribution, export and import of various agricultural commodities.

The federation is also the central nodal agency for undertaking price support operations in pulses and oilseeds and market intervention operations for other agricultural commodities such as jute, cotton and copra.

While the federation has the experience in procuring commodities such as oilseeds, pulses, onion etc from the domestic market, it has also been importing commodities such as pulses and edible oils, commodities where the country has been witnessing shortages, for marketing them in the country. With all these activities, the company can boast of a strong backward linkage in various products.

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