COVID-19: In consumerist Kerala, vaccines are the latest item in the supply chain

Thiruvananthapuram: For a state that gets much of everything from vegetables to packaged consumer products and white goods from other states, the latest item in the supply chain is the COVID-19 vaccine.

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for immunization has reached the state, and much larger quantities are expected to reach the state in the coming days for last mile delivery to recipients.

These deliveries in turn will give a boost to the warehousing business in the state that had been witnessing strong growth in recent years.

Kerala has less than 3 per cent of India’s population, but is estimated to consume roughly 10 per cent of medicines sold in the country.

An expert committee study headed by Dr B Iqbal had estimated that Keralites consumed Rs 80 billion worth of allopathic medicines alone in 2017-18.

Medicine consumption in the state also includes homeopathy, Ayurveda, Sidha and Unani streams, too, which may take the total value of medicines consumed in Kerala to well over Rs 100 billion.

The sharp growth in online purchases triggered by the COVID-19 lockdown, has given a strong boost to the entire supply chain and warehousing business in Kerala, with many small towns even witnessing micro warehouses being established, from where last-mile supplies are made to consumers.

Villages as small as Koovappally in Kottayam district are now figuring in the hub-and-spokes system of online suppliers like Amazon, as tens of thousands of youth from Kerala who were earlier working out of Bengaluru, Mumbai or Chennai are now working from their homes and continuing their online buying habits from their home villages.

Kerala has received 433,500 doses of Covishield vaccine sent from the Serum Institute of India, which will be sufficient for hardly 200,000 people, but when larger volumes of vaccine arrive in the state, full-fledged logistics operations will come into play.

“We are ready to handle vaccine distribution”, A M Sikander, CEO & MD of Palakkad-based Sitics Logistic Solutions told Gulf News. Sitics has operations across Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand besides its presence in 21 Indian states, and will soon be operating out of Australia.

Sikander, whose company is looking to expand into the US, Europe and Middle East including the UAE, said many of the COVID-19 vaccines by leading global pharma companies would need specialized sub-zero storage from warehouse to delivery van to refrigerators.

S Rajkumar, promoter of Cella Space which has logistics operations in Chennai and Kochi, said Kerala had to quickly enhance its logistics infrastructure not just for vaccine supplies but all consumer items given the state’s pattern of consumption.

“In the post-GST world when there is one tax structure across India, if proper warehousing and logistics are not in place, consumers in Kerala will end up paying more”, Rajkumar said.

In Kerala’s first phase of vaccination, beginning on Saturday, the priority will be to cover the state’s 368,866 health workers.