Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing
Year : 2014, Volume : 28, Issue : 3
First page : ( 88) Last page : ( 88)
Print ISSN : 0971-8664. Online ISSN : 2456-8716.

Food retail chain as an alternate marketing channel in India

Vishnu Kedar, Kumar Parmod

Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore-560 072

Online published on 23 October, 2017.

Summary

The increasing demand for high-value food products in India is creating environment for expansion of modern organized retailing. However the small and marginal farmers have been neglected in this emerging retail marketing chain as the benefits of organized food retail have not reached to small and marginal farmers for various reasons. In this context, the paper examines the reasons for non participation of small and marginal farmers in the organized fresh food chain. The study finds various reasons for exclusion of small farmers from the retail chain that can be summarized as: small size of land holdings; inadequate transport facilities; lower bargaining power; less irrigation facilities; less resources available for investment in agriculture like packaging material, storage place etc., and lack of physical capital like mechanical equipments and so on. It was further observed that the retailers in the organized chain also had tendency to evade small and marginal farmers because of low quantity and quality of product they offer to the market. Observing the behavior of the retailers, it was found that in the initial stages to establish their business, the retailers charged less margin in the consumer price while once established, the margin of the retailers start increasing.

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