New Delhi, Mar 8 (IANS): The Indian meat market -- fairly nascent with a large growth headroom -- is expected to reach $80-85 billion by 2024 and is up for disruption by branded players especially in the online space, a new report said on Monday.

During the pandemic, consumption of online branded meat has increased by more than two times.

"Since Covid, customers increasingly preferred purchasing meat online. This was driven by the assurance of safety and hygiene, availability of various products under one umbrella, doorstep service provided by online meat providers," according to Bengaluru-based market research firm RedSeer.

The reality is that the pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in raw meat orders online and key delivery players like FreshToHome, Licious, Zappfresh and BigBasket have seen three times growth in meat orders since the outbreak of the pandemic in India.

Currently, 90 per cent of non-vegetarians have mentioned meat to be an integral part of their diet with consumption frequency becoming more regular through the week.

"Young population, especially millennials, have shown increasing inclination towards meat eating. This change is driven largely by more of them leaving hometowns to study/work in larger cities, thereby, having higher exposure to dining out and online food delivery services," the report mentioned.

Indian consumers are increasingly focusing on health and physique with protein becoming a key element in their diets.

This led to higher demand for meat and eggs, especially in the metros, and two times growth in the players' GMV (gross merchandise value).

With demand surging, the online meat players quickly ramped-up supply capabilities to serve the consumer needs.

"As they gained the consumers' trust, sales jumped significantly. This trend is likely to intensify further and that makes India's online meat delivery market a very interesting one," the report noted.

Success of online meat providers is due to vertically-integrated supply chains with high bars on quality.

Also, the players have innovated to provide consumers a wide set of offerings, and attracted them through highly relevant and contextual marketing, the report said.