Food delivery volumes at pre-COVID-19 levels: Zomato CEO

The food delivery volumes in India have reached pre-coronavirus levels, said Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal on Monday. "Happy to share that India food delivery volumes have reached pre-COVID peaks. A number of cities are now at over 120 per cent of pre-COVID peaks," Goyal tweeted.

Food delivery is one of the safest recreational options available to the customers during the coronavirus pandemic, he said in a series of tweets. "Going forward, we anticipate the food delivery sector to continue to grow at around 15-25 per cent m-o-m for the foreseeable future," Goyal added.

"Since March 23rd, 2020, we have delivered a total of 9.2 crore orders - and there have been zero reported cases of COVID transmission through food delivery, or our food delivery agents," Goyal said.

A few weeks ago, the World Health Organisation (WHO) also categorically stated that people should not fear food, or food packaging, or processing or delivery of food. People should feel comfortable and safe, he added.

"The last few months have been full of shocks and surprises. We salute the hard work of our delivery partners, along with thousands of our restaurant partners who demonstrated great agility in implementing world class safety practices to ensure that our customers stay safe," Goyal said.

In September, Goyal had said in a blog post that with the ongoing IPL season and the subsequent festive season, "we expect food delivery in both metros and smaller cities to make a full recovery soon - and resume growing over pre-COVID levels." 

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