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by Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI, Dec. 17 (Xinhua)--As Kenyans are ready for Christmas celebrations, one of the things the east African nation citizens will be buying online this festive season is food.

Kenyans will be buying both raw and cooked food, which include fast-foods like pizzas, cakes, French fries, fish and Christmas delicacies like chapatis.

Residents will also go for groceries like tomatoes, vegetables and fruits.

The most popular meat are chicken, goat, beef and sheep, with the first two being the much-loved.

Most citizens buy full carcasses of chicken and goats, with the online firms offering mouth-watering deals this season.

There is also an option of buying live animals to pacify those who want to continue with the tradition of slaughtering their own animals.

Already, some online firms have announced that they have teamed with various hotels, meat shops, restaurants and supermarkets to sell the foods.

"This time around I will not go at the market or homes of farmers looking for animals to buy. I did that last year and it was hectic," Aaron Kimani, a resident of Kitengela, south of Nairobi, said on Monday.

Kimani noted in April during the Easter holiday, he bought a goat carcass weighing 15kg at 8,500 shillings (85 U.S. dollars) on one of the online sites and it was delivered at his home.

"It was the first time I was doing it and found it affordable and convenient because you buy an already slaughtered goat and it is the delivered at home," he said, noting a full goat carcass is currently going at 95 dollars average in early Christmas prices.

Buying online saves one the hustle of slaughtering the animal, removing the innards, skinning it and disposing of the waste, he said.

On the other hand, live goats are going at between 94 and 150 U.S. dollars depending on the size. Foreign-owned online firms selling food in Kenya include Uber Eats, Glovo and Jumia.

While the stores also sell other items or engage in other businesses, there are small home-grown firms, especially those exclusively dealing with groceries.

One has a Christmas offer of a goat and bottle of popular wine at 215 U.S. dollars while the animal is also being sold alongside with soda, tea, sugar and cooking fat at 219 U.S. dollars.

Prices of the cooked foods range from 3 to 6 dollars, with the firms leveraging on increased internet use and changing lifestyles to grow their businesses.

"It takes me 10 minutes for my coffee and a snack or juice to be delivered to the office when I order online, so why walk to a restaurant?" posed journalist Gregory Simiyu.

It is a question most young Kenyan professionals ask themselves as they shift to online food for convenience.

Kenya has 46.87 million internet users as of June this year, with a majority of them young people, according to the Communication Authority of Kenya. These are the consumers who are driving the online business which is fast-growing in Kenya.

Jumia Food managing director for East Africa Sheernal Ruparelia forecasts on-demand food deliveries would rise by more than 50 percent in 2020 in Kenya on the back of affordable food, increased mobile penetration, more vendors coming on board and convenience.

Bernard Mwaso of Edell IT Solution noted that with changing lifestyles centered around the internet, online food business can only boom in Kenya.

"Online stores are offering what traditional shops are not beside the convenience. One can now do all their Christmas shopping online, from meats to vegetables, from shoes, clothes to wine, they will all be delivered at their homes," he said.

Initially, people would move from one shop or market to another in search of the items.

"Anyone would want such convenience and this is what the online shops are cashing in on. The Kenyan consumer is slowly changing and the online convenience is perfectly fitting in the matrix," he said.

Original Source: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-12/17/c_138638315.htm

[Author：Gerard]