Orders placed in India do not arrive | How to find suppliers of ingredients and materials, and what to do about it

When starting a restaurant or food business in India, sourcing turns out to be harder than expected. Even after deciding on the product and how to sell it, the crucial ingredients don't arrive as planned. If you send a purchase order the way you would in Japan and just wait, nothing moves.

This article walks through, in order, what actually happens when sourcing ingredients and materials in India: how to search, how to make contact, how to prepare for deliveries that don't show up, and the difficult case of seafood in inland cities. It is based on both hands-on experience handling procurement for a food business on the ground and publicly available data. the big picture of entering India Reading this alongside that guide will help you see where in your business plan you should factor in procurement risk.

The First Step to Finding Suppliers in India

Find Them on IndiaMART, Then Talk via WhatsApp

When searching for suppliers in India, the first name that comes up is IndiaMART It's the equivalent of a business-to-business catalog site in Japanese terms, and as of the end of June 2026 it reports 234 million registered buyers, 8.8 million supplier storefronts, 132 million listed products, and about 98,000 categories. Because it is a listed company (on the BSE and NSE), its figures are also disclosed quarterly, which makes them easy to verify.

What's worth keeping in mind here is that transactions are not completed on IndiaMART itself. The company states clearly in its official help center that it "does not have a payment gateway and will never send a payment link." "Pay With IndiaMART," the in-platform payment mechanism, was also permanently discontinued on March 31, 2024. Its revenue comes from monthly subscription fees paid by listed suppliers, and it discloses no figure at all for total transaction volume.

In other words, IndiaMART's role ends at routing an inquiry to the other party's phone number, email address, or WhatsApp. According to the company's own explanation, buyers either send an inquiry or call the virtual number shown in the catalog, and suppliers contact the buyer using the mobile number and email address the buyer registered. It ultimately comes down to a person-to-person exchange, and it's faster to operate on that assumption from the start.

Submitting an Inquiry Form Won't Get You a Reply

It's best to abandon the expectation, common in Japan, that submitting an inquiry through a form will bring a reply within a few business days. You call the other party yourself on WhatsApp, and if there's no answer, you call again. It's only through this repetition that a conversation finally gets started.

This isn't just a feeling from the field -- it also shows up in IndiaMART's own product design. The company offers a paid feature that lets suppliers message a buyer's WhatsApp directly, marketing it as boosting "buyer response rates by up to 3x." What's more, this feature comes with a restriction allowing only one message per day until the buyer replies, which reads as a design built around the assumption that suppliers will keep sending messages without ever getting a reply.

That WhatsApp has become an established business communication tool is also backed up by research. A 2025 survey by Kantar found that 91% of online adults in India said they exchange chat messages with some kind of business every week. A joint study published by Bain & Company and Meta in May 2024 found that 15 million small and medium-sized businesses in India use WhatsApp Business. Both studies measured consumer-facing use, but in practice, the same tool is used for business-to-business dealings as well.

Suppliers Are Highly Fragmented

Meat, Fish, and Vegetables Each Come from Different Suppliers

It's hard to find a supplier like a Japanese foodservice wholesaler, where one phone call gets you everything you need. Suppliers of meat, fish, and vegetables are completely separate, and each is close to the scale of an independent shop. For imported food, countless small trading-house-like operators handling multiple items at once are scattered across the market.

As a result, the work comes down to finding a supplier for each item you need and negotiating price one shop at a time. It takes effort, but going through this process builds a feel for market pricing, which pays off later.

New Companies Keep Emerging, but They Also Disappear Fast

In every category, companies trying to rebuild distribution with technology keep appearing one after another. That said, the gap between the companies that stick around and the ones that pull out is stark, so we don't recommend building your supply chain around dependence on any single company.

One company growing its business-to-business supply of meat is Zappfresh (operated by DSM Fresh Foods). It listed on the BSE's SME market on October 9, 2025, so its numbers can be tracked through disclosures. Its business-to-business segment grew to about 28% of revenue in FY25 and reached roughly a 50-50 split with its consumer segment in the first half of FY26. It has also launched a dedicated app for hotels and retailers.

On the other hand, a company well known for selling meat online Licious has no dedicated channel for business customers. Its official site has no page for corporate clients, and bulk orders are handled through a general inquiry email address. Around 2019, the company set up a division for institutional clients and served hotels and restaurant chains for a time, but it scaled that back due to low margins and now focuses on its own app, quick commerce, and directly operated stores. Even one of India's leading D2C companies has just a single email address as its entry point for business customers, which says a lot about how business dealings work in this country.

In fruits and vegetables, Ninjacart specializes in business-to-business distribution. In FY25, revenue fell 18.5% year over year to 16.34 billion rupees because the company deliberately wound down low-margin businesses, but its core fulfillment business grew more than 100% year over year. Some e-commerce operators that sell vegetables also handle wholesale behind the scenes, so it's worth asking even companies that only show a consumer-facing side.

Hydroponic farming startups have also increased in number. In Rajasthan, Eeki's official site explicitly states that it supplies wholesalers, retailers, and processors, as well as hotels, restaurants, and QSR chains. Based in the Delhi National Capital Region and Nashik, Triton Foodworks also advertises supply to chefs and retailers.

That said, exits from this space have also followed one after another. A company that supplied more than 120 restaurants in Bengaluru Deep Rooted (operated by Clover Ventures) shut down in March 2025. In its early days, more than 70% of its revenue came from business customers, but institutional demand disappeared in March 2020, and it pivoted to a consumer brand. In early 2024, it shifted course again toward B2B supply for quick commerce, but even that didn't last. The fruit and vegetable company Otipy also shut down in May 2025, and the agricultural support company BharatAgri did the same in November 2025. The head of the hydroponic farming company UrbanKisaan has said that even when offered healthier vegetables, businesses choose conventionally grown produce to save a few rupees.

For trends among agriculture-sector startups, see India's Agriculture Business and Notable Startups.

Where to Buy in Bulk for Business Use

I wrote that finding a separate supplier for each item is the basic approach. There are exceptions, though. For items such as shelf-stable processed goods, seasonings, everyday supplies, and packaging materials, it's faster to use a format where you can buy in bulk. Things run more smoothly if you treat securing sources for fresh produce and sourcing these staple supplies as two separate tasks.

METRO Wholesale Is Membership-Based, and You Can Also Buy Online

As a format similar to Costco in Japan, India has METRO Wholesale METRO Wholesale. It carries business-use ingredients and everyday goods in bulk units, and besides its physical stores, you can also order for delivery through a dedicated app and e-commerce site.

One thing worth noting is who operates it. This business is no longer owned by Germany's METRO AG. Reliance Retail signed an acquisition agreement in December 2022 for 2,850 crore rupees (1 crore = 10 million rupees), and the deal closed on May 11, 2023. Because the brand name remains in use under a licensing arrangement, the stores are still called "METRO." Reliance Industries' annual report names hotels, restaurants, and catering as a priority channel.

Membership requires proof that you are a business, such as a GST registration certificate, an FSSAI license, or a trade license. The terms explicitly state that personal identification alone does not qualify you for membership. As of a July 2024 announcement, it had more than 200 stores across more than 180 cities, though the breakdown between large- and small-format stores is not disclosed. For the FSSAI application procedure, see The Complete Guide to Obtaining FSSAI Approval.

There Is Also a Supply Network Dedicated to Foodservice

As an operator focused specifically on supplying ingredients to restaurants, there is Hyperpure Hyperpure. It's a B2B platform launched in 2019 by major food delivery company Eternal (formerly Zomato). In FY25 it supplied more than 100,000 client locations and operates 11 warehouses across India. In addition to ingredient supply, it also offers menu development support and temperature-controlled logistics.

Beyond this, there are also wholesalers for retail stores such as Reliance Market and Best Price Flipkart Wholesale, and online-only players such as udaan and Jumbotail. udaan lists cash on delivery as one of its official payment methods.

Build Your Plan Assuming an Order May Not Arrive

It Doesn't Arrive on Time, the Wrong Item Arrives, a Defective Item Arrives

The biggest struggle in sourcing in India isn't finding a supplier or negotiating price -- it's that what was promised doesn't arrive on the day it was promised. Beyond simply arriving late, which is par for the course, you'll also find the wrong item delivered or spoiled goods mixed in.

The fix isn't complicated -- it comes down to nailing down the conditions in advance. Write out the item, specification, quantity, and delivery date, and agree on them beforehand. If you place an order while things are still vague, delivery day arrives with your expectations and the supplier's understanding out of sync.

Check the Goods Before You Pay

If cash on delivery is available, it's safer to use it. Paying only after checking the actual goods lets you stop the transaction if the wrong item shows up.

Setting stricter payment terms is not unusual in India. According to a 2026 survey by credit insurer Atradius (covering 301 Indian companies), only about half of business-to-business sales in India are conducted on credit terms, with the rest paid in advance or on delivery. The survey points out that Indian companies tend to rely on operational measures such as tightening payment terms or requiring prepayment, rather than on bad-debt provisioning. The most common reason cited for late payment was quality-related complaints, at 54%, followed by delays in bank processing, at 38%.

The same survey also notes that bad-debt write-offs in India are more often caused by "unresponsive counterparties" than by formal bankruptcy. The risk of a partner going silent exists just as much at the payment stage.

The Buyer Should Be the One Sending Reminders

It's more accurate to think of it not as "place the order and it arrives," but as needing to keep following up from the moment you order until it actually arrives. Check in a few days before delivery, and reach out again the day before. Skip this effort and nothing shows up on the scheduled day.

For challenges with logistics infrastructure itself, see Five Major Challenges in Indian Logistics and Practical Solutions. For items involving refrigeration or freezing, also see The Frozen Food Market and the Cold Chain as well.

Seafood in Inland Cities Is a Notch Harder

In Bengaluru, seafood is transported overnight from fishing ports

Handling seafood in a city that isn't on the coast raises the difficulty by a notch. In Bengaluru, seafood is transported at night from fishing ports in Mangalore, Malpe (Udupi), and Andhra Pradesh, arriving at the wholesale market around 4 a.m., where retailers pick it up around 7:30 a.m. If something stalls anywhere along the way, nothing comes in that day. Tracing the actual cause sometimes reveals that the shipment never even left the fishing port.

The tricky part is that even when you ask the supplier, they have to check back with the fishing port further up the chain, and that's where things stall. The more people there are in between, the harder it is to know what's actually going on.

Delhi's Fresh Fish Isn't Sea Fish

It's also worth keeping in mind that circumstances differ from city to city. In Delhi's case, according to research on the Ghazipur wholesale market, the main sources of fresh fish are states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab, through inland freshwater aquaculture, and freshwater fish such as catla and rohu account for 60% of the fish handled at the market. Sea fish arrives chilled or frozen from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Insisting on fresh sea fish in an inland city raises the bar considerably, and it's best to plan with that in mind. The market has 252 wholesalers handling 100-150 tons a day, but a shortage of cold storage facilities is cited as a constraint.

Catch Volumes at the Source Themselves Shift from Year to Year

Part of why supply is hard to predict is variability at the source. According to marine catch statistics for 2024 published by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) in 2025, the national catch was 3,467,095 tons, but the swings by state were large: Karnataka fell 34% year over year, Goa fell 50%, and Daman and Diu fell 44%, while Maharashtra rose 47% and West Bengal rose 35%. There's no guarantee that the same volume will come from the same source as last year --that's simply how it is.

There are two sets of figures for post-catch loss rates. A survey published by the government (the Department of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying) states that the loss rate for inland fisheries improved from 18% in FY2019-20 to 8.84% in FY2023-24, and for marine fisheries from 21% to 9.3%. At the same time, an estimate that 25-30% of fisheries resources are lost due to inadequate facilities also continues to be cited. It's safer not to judge based on just one figure or the other.

It's also worth avoiding the blanket statement that "India is a vegetarian country." In the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), the share of women who eat fish, chicken, or meat at least once a week reaches 93% in Kerala, 86% in Goa, and 80% in Assam. By contrast, the figures are 4% in Punjab, 6% in Rajasthan, and 8% in Haryana. This is a market that differs entirely from state to state --it's best to plan on that basis. For a concrete example of a business handling seafood, see The Sushi Business in India as well.

Materials Other Than Ingredients Don't Show Up Online

Materials You Search for Around Town Are Found Through Referrals and Site Visits

For materials such as furniture, napkins, and tableware, each city has a handful of core manufacturers or suppliers. Once you reach them, your options for both selection and price expand dramatically.

The problem is that information about these businesses generally isn't available online. There's no way around it but the slow approach: ask a supplier you already work with about their own suppliers, or use Google Maps to make a guess and go visit in person. Trade shows are one of the few chances to meet many potential suppliers at once, so The India Food Trade Show Calendar-- checking the dates there in advance improves your efficiency.

Some Materials Are Worth Traveling to the Source For

On the other hand, for items like interior fittings and fixtures, materials you need to source in bulk quantities at once, it's more advantageous in both selection and price to go directly to the production region rather than a local dealer. In India, production regions are clearly divided by item, so simply knowing what is made where makes it much easier to move.

Production regions have clear specialties. The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) lists Moradabad for metalware, Jodhpur for woodwork, and Firozabad for glass as its major craft clusters. The council also operates a timber-seasoning facility in Saharanpur, a testing lab in Jaipur, and lace-related facilities in Narsapur, and the fact that a public body has set up facilities on a region-by-region basis effectively forms a map of the production regions.

The market is not small, either. According to EPCH's FY2024-25 annual report, handicraft exports totaled 33,122.79 crore rupees (US$3,917.89 million). By category, wooden products came to 8,524.74 crore rupees, up 6.05% year over year, and metal crafts came to 4,386.63 crore rupees. Note that this figure excludes hand-knotted carpets.

The Payoff When You Find a Good Supplier

This has been a lot of trouble to describe, but the flip side is that reaching a good maker pays off in a big way. Given how vast the country is, there are people in every region making things with real care, and partnering with them lets you offer things no other shop can match.

The question is how to narrow down candidates among the countless makers out there. One useful clue is working backward from items whose production region is officially certified by the government-- this approach. If a production region is officially identified through a government scheme, you can use it as your starting point to find producers.

Narrowing Down Production Regions Using Geographical Indications (GI)

Backing this up institutionally is the Geographical Indication (GI) system. According to a state-by-state registration list published by India's Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (prepared January 7, 2026), there are 684 registered GIs in the country, of which 375 are handicrafts, 220 are agricultural products, and 54 are food products (the remainder fall into categories such as manufactured goods and natural products). These include Darjeeling tea, Alphonso mango, Nagpur orange, and Kashmir saffron.

For Coffee, Quality Depends on Choosing the Right Farmer

Coffee is a clear example. According to Coffee Board of India statistics, production in FY2023-24 was 360,500 tons, with robusta accounting for 71.8% and arabica for 28.2%. Karnataka overwhelmingly dominates as the growing region at 70.6%, and by district, Coorg (Kodagu) leads with 132,620 tons, followed by Chikmagalur with 85,155 tons. Production for FY2025-26 is projected to reach a record 4.03 lakh tons (1 lakh = 100,000 rupees, as noted in the source).

What's worth noting is the makeup of producers: of 440,748 growers, 437,890 farm less than 10 hectares, meaning 99.4% are smallholder farmers. The structure is such that quality depends on whether you can find a good farmer. There are also seven GI-registered coffees, including Coorg Arabica, Chikmagalur Arabica, Bababudangiris Arabica, Wayanad Robusta, and Araku Valley Arabica. For details on the characteristics of each growing region, see India's Coffee Production and Global Market Share.

Wine-Growing Regions Are Also Developing

The same pattern holds for wine. Sula Vineyards, the country's largest producer, has five wineries across Nashik, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, and states in its own disclosures that it holds more than a 50% share of the domestic wine market. Others include Grover Zampa, which has two sites in Nandi Hills (Karnataka) and Nashik, and Fratelli in Akluj, Maharashtra.

For an approach to identifying supplier candidates across the entire market, see Seven Effective Methods for Market Research in India.

Frequently asked questions

Where should I start when looking for suppliers in India?

The usual approach is to search for candidates on the B2B site IndiaMART, then contact them by WhatsApp or phone. Because IndiaMART has no payment function, a transaction never gets completed on the site itself. Materials other than ingredients are often not listed at all, so it's more reliable to ask an existing supplier for a referral or to search Google Maps and visit in person.

I sent an inquiry through a form or by email, but I'm not getting a reply.

In India, WhatsApp is the main channel for business communication, and forms or email alone often get no response. A realistic approach is to call on WhatsApp, and if there's no answer, wait a few days and reach out again. IndiaMART itself markets a paid feature that lets suppliers message a buyer's WhatsApp, promoting it as boosting "response rates by up to 3x."

Is there a place where I can buy business-use ingredients in bulk?

There is METRO Wholesale, a membership-based business wholesaler; besides its stores, you can also order for delivery through its dedicated app and e-commerce site. Membership requires proof that you are a business, such as a GST registration certificate or an FSSAI license. For restaurants, there is also Hyperpure, operated by Eternal (formerly Zomato), which supplied more than 100,000 locations in FY25.

How should I prepare for when an order I placed doesn't arrive?

Agree in writing beforehand on the item, specification, quantity, and delivery date, and have the buyer send reminders a few days before delivery and again the day before. If cash on delivery is available, arranging to pay only after checking the actual goods can stop wrong deliveries or defective items. Atradius's 2026 survey also points out that Indian companies tend to limit risk through operational measures such as prepayment or stricter payment terms.

Can I source seafood reliably in Bengaluru or Delhi?

The difficulty increases in inland cities. In Bengaluru, seafood is transported at night from fishing ports in Mangalore and Andhra Pradesh, arriving at the wholesale market around 4 a.m., and if something stalls along the way, nothing comes in that day. In Delhi, fresh fish mainly comes from inland freshwater aquaculture, and seafood arrives chilled or frozen. Designing your business without insisting on fresh sea fish will make supply more stable.

Are there high-quality Indian-grown ingredients?

Coffee and wine both have established growing regions. Coffee production reached 360,500 tons in FY2023-24, with Karnataka accounting for 70.6%, and Coorg and Chikmagalur as the main growing areas. There are also seven GI-registered coffees. There are 684 registered GIs nationwide (as of January 2026), including 220 agricultural products and 54 food items. Finding a good producer is the key.