Product collection and distribution of local seller of onions: The case of store 'I' in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido [Japan]
2009
Sasaki, T.(Hokkaido Univ., Sapporo (Japan)) | Iizawa, R.
Although agricultural cooperative marketing has a high percentage of agricultural market today, there still remain local sellers who uniquely collect and sell greengrocery. Why do they stay in business when agricultural cooperative marketing has become so powerful? Do they have roles which agricultural cooperative marketing cannot play? In this paper, a local seller of onions, Store 'I' in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido was surveyed as the first approach, and mainly its collection and distribution systems were studied. Store 'I' obtained the trust of medium-sized retailers and has increased its delivery to the first category market by its detailed responses in the stages of collection, adjustment and delivery. It collects products from only the farmers who met with the quality criteria, and performs compulsory drying treatment for all products. It also built a system which enabled even small amount of products to be delivered by tucks quickly. Furthermore, it has a warehouse with enough capacity, and can deliver products according to the market situation. Therefore, it delivers more products after the turn of the year when the price rises, and it has extremely low rate of stocks for processing to adjust for supply and demand. This is how it pays farmers relatively high prices to keep good relations with them, and it creates a mutually advantageous cycle along with various efforts Store 'I' makes.
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