Wholesale marketing of food

The consumption and production of marketed food are spatially separated. Production is primarily in rural areas while consumption is in urban areas. Agricultural marketing is the process that overcomes this separation, allowing produce to be moved from an area of surplus to one of need. Food reaches the consumer by a complex network, involving production, assembly, sorting, packing, reassembly, distribution and retail stages. In developing countries the linkage between the producer and the retailer is still usually provided by assembly and wholesale markets, where wholesale marketing takes place using a variety of transaction methods. Recent years have seen an expansion of wholesale marketing in E. European and former CIS countries. On the other hand, the growth of supermarkets in many regions has seen the development of direct marketing and a reduced role for wholesale systems.

Types of wholesale market

Secondary wholesale markets are generally found only in developing countries these days. They are located in district or regional cities and take the bulk of their produce from rural assembly markets located in production areas, where the transactions are small scale and usually take place between farmers and traders. The distinction between rural assembly markets and secondary wholesale markets is that secondary wholesale markets are in permanent operation (rather than being seasonal in nature or dealing in specialized produce), larger volumes of produce are traded than at the rural assembly markets and specialized functions may be present, such as commission agents and brokers.Wholesaling include all the activity involved in selling goods and services to those buying for resale or business use .Firms engaged primarily in wholesaling are called wholesalers.