Agricultural Marketing Case Study

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6.6.2 Assembling

Encyclopaedia of Saskatchewan defines agricultural marketing as the performance of all business activities included in the flow of products from the beginning of agricultural production until they are in the hands of consumers—“from the farm to the fork.”Marketing of indigenous fruit starts first with picking and collecting the fruits from the fields, then sorting, grading, pricing, packing and distribution. This is known as assembly/ assembling which is the first stage in marketing of fruits which involves collection of the produce at suitable place for distribution to consuming markets (Ahmed & Aara, 2012). Grading and standardisation protect the farmers to some extent from exploitation by improving their bargaining power. …show more content…

Hence, such type of distribution strategy has an impact on pricing and income of the farmers, since, the major share of consumer's rupee is pocketed by the middlemen. Farmers in India have traditionally been price takers and the middlemen have been the price makers (Khatkar et al , 2005; Team Yes Bank, 2012). As a result of marketing margins, producers may be interested in direct marketing to consumers in order to increase profitability by receiving higher margins keeping in mind the producers involved in direct marketing efforts are likely to incur additional costs (Cox, 2010). Some researchers suggested the removal of middlemen and opt for direct marketing because marketing efficiency was more where no middlemen existed ( Sudha, 2003; Dastagiri et al, 2013). Although, it has also been noted that, for vegetables growers the most preferred channel of distribution is channel II i.e. Producer- retailer- wholesaler-consumers (Chole et al, 2003) which the farmers in Meghalaya are adopting, states like Punjab and Tamil Nadu found that the highest marketing efficiency channel was found to be of Producer to Consumer (Dastagiri et al, 2013). Although, research studies on channels of distribution revealed that the highest marketing efficiency is found in direct marketing, other distribution strategies are also available which has contributed to successful marketing of different produce. For instance, channel III (Growers---- Wholesalers---- Retailers-----Consumers) was the highest marketing efficiency in marketing of banana in Theni district (Jaffer, 2005). Again marketing efficiency in channel III i.e. Producers (farmers) - TradersDifferent Terminal markets is highest in case of marketing of apples in Kashmir which may be due to the lowest total marketing cost

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