Food delivery sector showing stronger signs of recovery: Zomato CEO

The food delivery segment in India has shown stronger signs of recovery with the overall sector clocking over 85 per cent of the pre-COVID gross merchandise value (GMV), Zomato Founder and CEODeepinder Goyal said on Wednesday.

The key insight is that thefood delivery sector has recovered and even grown beyond pre-COVID levelsin a number of large pockets of the country, led by some of the most affluent residential areas in the country,Goyal said in a blogpost.

Delhi and Mumbai are nearing full recovery at around 95 per cent of the pre-COVID levels, he added.

Metros such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai are at around 80 per cent of pre-COVID sales.

Some cities such as Kolkata, Patna, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, and Siliguri have recovered completely and have exceeded pre-COVID levels, he said.

"Within most cities, the affluent parts of the city are driving this recovery," Goyal said.

Customers are now relying on food delivery even more than usual when a city goes under a lockdown. Somecities such as Kolkata see more customers ordering online when the city is more or less shut, but restaurants are open, he added.

"With the ongoing IPL season and the subsequent festival season, we expect food delivery in both metros and smaller cities to make a full recovery soon and resume growing over pre-COVID levels," Goyal said.