4 days ago
Amid Seasonal Fishing Bans, Licious Keeps Seafood Flowing with Robust Coast-to-Coast Supply Chain
Bengaluru: As seasonal fishing bans have come into effect on India's coasts, D2C meat and seafood brand Licious rerouted procurement from multiple active coasts to maintain seafood availability across urban markets amid supply drops and price spikes in multiple states.
The 61-day bans in place from April 15 to June 14 on the East Coast and from June 1 to July 31 on the West Coast enable marine ecosystems to regenerate in peak breeding season. This has led to supply visibly reducing with wet markets & traditional vendors. This has led to price rises of 40% to 80% in markets with consumers purchasing for household consumption across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and other areas.
Licious' supply chain strategy combines daily-demand forecasting, regional rerouting, and one of India's first and most advanced 0-4 degrees centigrade cold chains, enabling continued availability when others scale down.
'Our goal isn't to bypass the system, but to work within it. We choose to source same day catch from small boats and follow all government regulations when it comes to mechanised trawling while meeting customer demand across 20+ cities. During the ban, we leverage our in-house planning and demand forecasting mechanisms for an agile supply chain. In practice, that means moving fish from Kochi to Delhi overnight or rerouting via Tuticorin when East Coast hubs are restricted,' said Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, Founders - Licious.
Licious sources from multiple landing sites across Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Goa - reducing overfishing and ensuring availability with 150+ cuts of fish and seafood. The company moves its inventory using a combination of truck, rail, and air transport, supported by a national cold chain infrastructure maintained at 0-4°C to keep products fresh and not frozen.
Unlike the broader market, which sees product shortages in this period, Licious' graded and quality-assured range assures availability of 94 fish species. This includes favourites like Seer, Pomfret, Anchovies, Mackerals, and Pink Perch among others. Underlying the Licious supply chain is a demand model built on hyperlocal insights too; e.g., Vishu in Kerala drives demand for specific regional catches, while Bengali-dominated neighborhoods see spikes in freshwater fish consumption around Poila Boishakh.
India's fish and seafood industry remains largely unorganised, with supply chains vulnerable to seasonality, policy driven restrictions, and logistical complications. With marine fish shelf life being extremely short, forecasting errors lead to waste, and that is what the Licious network is designed to prevent. Our operations during the fishing ban also point to an alternative approach that is both compliance-first and demand-led.
