The Importance of Agricultural Marketing for Modern Farmers

Self-reliance is the key feature of Agriculture. Farmers understood the importance of their work and ability to get products to market. The American food supply chain depends on this self-reliance.

Fremont, CA: During a pandemic, a weakness in this system has been revealed. Farmers and agricultural professionals relied on food supply chains to handle marketing, but the supply chain broke down during COVID-19. It affects the industry very badly. As a result, grocery stores were empty, and farmers’ products were unsold. 

It’s time for the farmers and agricultural professionals to enhance their marketing strategies on their own terms, where a food producer connects directly with the clientele. The US is a majority urban country. Most of them are staying in cities, and only a fraction is from rural areas. It means there is a long distance between people and places of their food. 

American consumers around the world are demanding organic products. They wanted to know more about what they eat, what went into the production of that food, and the production process relied on organic materials. 

As a result of COVID-19, slaughterhouses and warehouses were closed over safety concerns, which interrupted food supplies, while consumers relied on online shopping for groceries. During this phase, many good products became waste as the food supply chain broke down. The traditional concept of self-reliance doesn’t quite match up to a contemporary world where farmers, retailers, distributors and consumers are all connected in a complex network. 

Farmers can market their products directly to customers by developing agricultural marketing skills. This is what today’s self-reliance looks like. 

Agricultural Marketing Methods

There are various ways a farmer or producer can get their products to market. In agriculture, marketing refers to the original relationship among the producers, marketplace and consumers. All concepts of marketing build from this core relationship. 

Selling via Resellers and Market

Farmers in the previous generation formed networks, alliances and groups across the US to help independent farmers to get access to all kinds of the marketplace. 

Farmers who can build direct connections with customers can make more money than those with a distributor. 

Marketing Cooperatives

Small and medium-sized farmers mostly don’t have the time or resources to manage direct-to-customer marketing offers. As a solution, marketing cooperatives have been on the rise in recent years. These collectives of farmers, rural entrepreneurs and producer share marketing responsibilities and benefit from them.