KARACHI: Foodpanda Pakistan, an online food and grocery delivery platform owned by Berlin-based Delivery Hero, has become the first entity within the group to start exporting food items with an aim to enhance market penetration in the Middle East, a top official said.
The on-demand delivery platform operates in 11 countries in Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Singapore. None of its branches in other parts of the world have so far ventured into the export business.
“Pakistan is the first country within Foodpanda, and might even be within Delivery Hero as well, to start export of fresh products such as fruits, vegetables or meat to any other country,” Muntaqa Peracha, CEO of Foodpanda Pakistan, told Arab News in an interview on Wednesday.
Muntaqa Peracha, CEO of Foodpanda Pakistan, speaks to Arab News in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 1, 2023 (AN Photo)
The company was working with organizations like Talabat and Hunger Station in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states, Peracha said, to scale up exports after making the first shipment of oranges to the United Arab Emirates earlier this year.
“We are trying to work with them as well where we can start exporting our products to them,” the CEO added. “It can eventually scale up [the exports], because if they can start purchasing from us rather than from the local market, it helps their profitability, it helps our profitability, it brings dollars into the country.”
Peracha highlighted that the company’s export goals would be achieved without needing extra financing:
“We’ve established our stations at the vegetable market to purchase. That helps in terms of the quality, it obviously helps in terms of pricing as well, it helps in terms of our scale. So, we’re using our existing means, we’re not trying to invest further or dilute our profitability.”
Pakistan is currently grappling with alarmingly low foreign exchange reserves which stand at $3.2 billion, not even enough to cover a month of imports. Many companies are scaling down or suspending their operations as the government has banned all but essential imports and restricted outflows of the dollar.
Against this background the Foodpanda chief said the decision to export would enhance its revenue in dollars and favorably position Pakistan in the Middle Eastern market.
He admitted that the economic situation was “a little bit difficult” for delivery operators, especially when it came to imported materials.
“We, for example, as Foodpanda are facing issues in terms of stocks for our Pandamart dark stores because suppliers are not able to import a few of their materials used to produce products,” Peracha said. “Be it something like tissue paper, be it tea, be it oil.”
“We are facing those issues where we are probably running out of stock sooner than what we had anticipated,” he added. “That’s not something we can solve alone because that’s something that the suppliers and the government need to solve and they are working on that.”
The Foodpanda chief said instead of taking a hit in terms of revenue, the company had decided to look at the possibility of exporting.
Asked about running operations amid increasing prices, with inflation rate hitting 31.5 percent in February, Peracha said Foodpanda was offering discounts and subsidizing “from our pocket” to drive demand growth up in order to maintain profitability.
