7 Reasons Why the Middlemen Should Be Put At the Backdrop
The middlemen
The middleman in a layman’s language simply means an intermediary between the producer (farmer) and the end-user or the consumer of the final products.
In today’s business world agriculture to be specific, we cannot rule out the importance of middlemen. They have been part of the distribution chain for centuries.
One of the problems usually encountered by livestock farmers be it poultry, cow, sheep, goats, etc. is the issue of how to fully benefit from the sale of their farm produce and livestock after both the farming season and rearing periods.
Many farmers take the brunt, and pain of rearing their livestock.
Rural women going to sell their farm produce directly without the middlemen
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Risk-taking by farmers includes the following:
- Financial, this involves funding of the farm business (personal savings, loans, funds from family and friends, etc.)
- Physical labor, logistics, manpower, farmworkers, and the technical aspect of running the farm day to day activities.
- Emotional stress, the anxiety of losing one’s investment to both bacterial and viral infections, fungi, cattle disease, and cattle rustlers, etc.
- Fluctuation and uncertainty in both the weather, amount of rainfall, and the unpredictable prices of commodities in the market.
Considering the above risk that the farmer has to go through it is only fair that the farmer has the full benefits of his labor or at least a larger percentage of the profit should go to him.
In developing countries and many rural communities, the middlemen have taken over the sale and distribution chain, thereby leaving the main farmers with little or no profit.
The following points will help the farmers sell their farm produce directly to the consumers. Which will help greatly in increasing the profit margin of the farmer.
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Selling vegetables at the farmers market
How to sell your farm produce directly to the consumers
- Leveraging on the internet, and social media: as a farmer, it is important you create your presence on social media by having accounts on Facebook, Pinterest and WhatsApp’s, etc. creating uploading your farm produce on your Facebook pages, groups, on WhatsApp’s and other relevant social media network. Going a step further by creating your own websites will greatly help. If you are not computer or internet savvy you can talk to a friend or consult a professional to assist you.
- The farmers market: you can also present your farm products on market days in a good package form that will attract customers directly to your farm. Labeling and displaying your products in an attractive way is a good way to meet your customers.
- If you have the financial means and capacity, you can build your own slaughterhouse or abattoir on your property and farm. This will attract consumers to your livestock farm be it poultry, goats, sheep, or cow directly to buy meat.
- Targeting festive periods in and around your community is a great way to bypass the middlemen because during these periods there is always a high demand for poultry meats. These present an opportunity for you to sell your birds directly to the consumers within your farm premises.
- Having healthy, attractive, quality fresh products, and being consistent over the years will always attract customers and consumers to your farm.
At the local goat market
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Advantages of Eliminating the Middlemen
- Saving Distribution Cost
A lot of time and money goes into the employment of sales representatives to promote and distribute your farm produce.
- Fresh And Good Value For Your Farm Products
By eliminating the middlemen, you have saved a lot of time that would have gone into repackaging redistribution of your farm produce. These may course a lot of farm products to lose their freshness. And also course an increase in prices.
- Customers Satisfaction
With you in charge of the distribution chain, your customers the end-users are assured of quality farm products. A lot of middlemen are known to adulterate farm products to increase their profit margin. These will definitely affect your company or farm’s reputation for excellence.
- Direct Customer Feedback
You have the opportunity to have direct feedback from your numerous customers on how to better improve the quality of your farm produce. And other farms produce that you may need to venture into (farm expansion)
- Significant Increase In Profit Margin
Considering all the risks involved in farming and bringing out the desired farm product for your customers and consumers. By eliminating the middlemen the farmer will see a significant change and increase in the profit margin because all profits come to him directly.
- You Deserve To Take All The Glory
There is no greater satisfaction a farmer will ever have than his customers, the end-user thanking him for producing such good, fresh, healthy, and quality products.
So many consumers don’t even know the farmers behind their favorite vegetables, foods, and tasty meat. Dealing directly with the consumers offers you the opportunity to interact with your consumers, they in turn will have the opportunity to appreciate the effort you put into producing healthy food for them.
