Local Marketing of Organic Products in Developing Countries

Selling their products is frequently a major problem for small farmers. Often, farmers only think about selling and marketing when they have a surplus only to find that they face a number of difficulties: difficult or restricted access to markets, high competency on the market, markets dominated by intermediaries, a surplus on the market, a mismatch between what they have to offer and the consumers’ demands these are only some of the problems farmers are facing.

Usually products do not sell themselves. In order to sell them one must get active, analyze the different market opportunities, understand consumers’ demands and promote the products.

The activities to be undertaken specifically depend on what you want to achieve. You should clarify a few basic questions for yourself:

• Do you want to sell to the market only when you have a surplus?

• Do you want to sell directly to the con-sumer?

• Do you want to sell your products with little time and effort but at a lowerprice?

• Do you want to have a long-term rela-tionship with your customers?

Based on your basic orientation you can then start building your marketing strategy. To develop the right marketing strategy you need to consider

• which products you are going to sell,

• who your potential customers are,

• where you are going to offer the pro-ducts and

• what price you want to get?

Before elaborating on the details of marketing we would like to highlight two common traps that newcomers easily fall into: focussing on solely one product and a strategy based only on short-term profit maximisation.

Every farmer knows quite well the uncertainties and risks associated with farming. Most farmers employ a farming stra-tegy which balances yield with risk reduction: they do not normally grow just one crop just because it fetches the highest price on the market or plant the highest yielding variety when it is not tolerant to pest outbreaks even though such outbreaks might occur only once in a while.

The same reasoning holds true for marketing in small farming conditions: Markets are also not fully predictable; there are always uncertainties and risks. If one product fails, there must be other alternatives to survive on. So, an important issue when developing a marketing strategy is how to deal with the risk involved. Farmers, especially small farmers should minimize their risk not only in production but also in marketing activities.

The second issue is very much related: short-term versus long-term orientation. Farming can only be done successfully with a long-term perspective and a useful marketing strategy should build on that. Farming practices should not be completely revamped merely because one very tempting opportunity appears on the (global) market. Many incidents may jeopardize such a strategy: Prices may drop, intermediaries may let you down, a plague may destroy the crop, etc. Ultimately, the farmer and his family will have to pay the price, which more often than not is an increased dependency and sometimes even loss of the farm.

So even if a certain product is strongly promoted by external organisations, it is usually not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. It is highly advisable to start small, reflect on your experience, improve your judgement of opportunities and risks involved, and gradually to build on that.

In the end, the purpose of marketing in the context of small farmers is not primarily profit maximisation with a strong market dependency. It is rather food security and improved livelihoods in the long term.

There are many ways to look at marketing in order clarify the practical questions. In common marketing literature the following elements constitute the pillars of any marketing strategy.

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• The Product from a crop or from animal husbandry

• The Price at which the product can be sold

• The Promotion that creates awareness about the product

• The Place where the product will be offered.

They are known as the 4 Ps and we suggest considering a 5th P for Producer and his/her situation:

• The Producer with his/her personality, capacity, cultural background, socio-economic situation and his/her ambitions and needs.

The 5 Ps interact with and depend on each other. In the following chapters they will be explained and discussed in detail.