Moderate development of direct marketing of local agricultural products

A survey on the development of people's livelihood and the main demands of people's livelihood shows that food safety is the area with the lowest satisfaction of urban residents. Out of concern about food safety, many city dwellers are willing to buy food directly from producers. They are concerned about the food production process and food safety. In this context, the direct marketing of agricultural products in China began to show the momentum of development.

At present, consumers still take the farmers' market with fresh fruits and vegetables as the main channel for the purchase of direct selling agricultural products. In addition, urban residents also through a variety of new forms to get what they think is more "reliable" safe food. In some big cities, many new forms are emerging, such as consumer clubs, weekend farms and so on. Since 2013, more and more Beijing residents have begun to order vegetables like milk, ordering vegetables directly from farms on the outskirts of Beijing. Farmers cultivate carefully, produce and sell their own products, and distribute them on their own. Some areas have set up direct sales stores for agricultural products in cities. In some big cities, due to strong consumer demand and active promotion by members of the public who are concerned about food safety, there have been bazaars for farmers to sell their own "organic vegetables" and "easy vegetables". Such as the Zhejiang Natural Farmers' Market and the Beijing Organic Farmers' Market. The direct sale of agricultural products to urban residents began to show its charm.

Direct marketing of agricultural products, that is, farmers' own production and marketing, is regarded by some people as a backward mode of production and management. So, today, when we vigorously develop modern agriculture, why is there a new trend of direct marketing of agricultural products? is it a flash in the pan or will it continue to develop? Through the analysis of the development of foreign direct marketing of agricultural products, we can get some enlightenment.

In the United States, the place of direct marketing of agricultural products is called "Farmers' Market", and it is called the "flagship" of direct marketing of agricultural products. In the 1940s, with the development of long-distance transportation industry and the rise of supermarket retail industry, American farmers' bazaar showed signs of decline and even almost disappeared. In the 1970s, the direct marketing of agricultural products, mainly in the form of farmers' bazaars, began to revive. Although efforts have been made to promote the large-scale production of agricultural modernization in the United States in the 20th century, there are still many small farms that are not suitable for large-scale marketing and are excluded from the market. these small farms went bankrupt in the 1960s and 1970s, but some small farms near the suburbs survived, and the important marketing channel they rely on is the direct sale of agricultural products to urban residents. In this context, although the proportion of direct sales in the sales channel is still very small, the rapid development and popularity of half a century is an indisputable fact. The USDA has opened a "USDA Farmers' Bazaar" in the parking lot of its headquarters to promote high-profile support and encouragement for farmers' bazaars.

The farmers' market in Britain can be said to be the result of the joint action of the forces of the international community, the government and the people. After the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the British agenda 21 Committee listened to the concerns of the public. In view of the fact that consumers attach importance to the quality of agricultural products and worry about the negative consequences of highly intensive production of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the environment, based on the fact that farmers' bazaars "do not encourage large-scale and highly intensive production, and reduce energy and resource consumption caused by long-distance transportation and packaging", the first farmers' market was established in Britain in September 1997, after the farmers' market disappeared in the UK for many years. It can be said that "British agenda 21" and the principle of sustainable development are the results of the concrete implementation in the United Kingdom.

The return of direct marketing of agricultural products, which started in the 1970s, has caused widespread controversy. Some people think that the return to direct selling is a retrogressive performance, because direct selling is "inefficient". But the fact is that direct sales of agricultural products thrived in the midst of bad voices that year. Farmers' bazaars in Canada started almost at the same time as in the United States. Countries such as Britain are catching up, and Australia and New Zealand have followed suit. There has been a return of direct marketing in these countries with highly developed agriculture, which is worthy of our deep consideration. Efficiency logic encounters difficulties in explaining this phenomenon, and there must be new logic to explain it. This logic is the "quality logic" and "green consumption concept logic" that conforms to the needs of consumers. The direct marketing of agricultural products virtually carries the concept of sustainable development of agricultural production. At the same time, it proves that the existence of small-scale production and small-scale farmers is reasonable.

Our current situation is quite similar to that of the above countries: consumers worried about food safety, small-scale agricultural production that may exist for a long time, the urgent need for environmental protection, the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, and nostalgia for the tradition of production in a natural way. Moreover, due to the existence of middlemen, the problem of "buying expensive" and "difficult to sell" urgently needs to be solved. It can be predicted that although direct marketing of agricultural products has just sprung up, it is probably not a flash in the pan, but there is a broad space for growth.

In this case, the farmers' market, which exists most widely in the direct marketing of agricultural products in China, should also have a new direction for its development. At present, the existence of farmers' market in cities is often faced with an awkward situation because of "affecting the appearance of the city". Managers should see the strong consumer demand behind the direct marketing of agricultural products. Urban farmers' markets (especially open-air markets) not only provide consumers with agricultural products, but also provide urban consumers with shopping experience that large supermarkets cannot provide. Managers should strengthen the construction of self-selling areas and adjust the management and development of farmers' markets under new ideas and new ideas.

Some people have doubts that self-produced products cannot be taken for granted as "safe food". Home-grown dishes mainly build consumers' sense of trust in products because of their local attributes and good product traceability. Traditional forms of production and sales can bring consumers a kind of sense of security. The government should take measures to ensure the real safety of self-produced and sold products.

In China, based on the ratio of people to land and other reasons, even if we vigorously promote urbanization and agricultural modernization, the small-scale production and operation of agricultural production in China will still exist in some areas. In the past, in the context of agricultural modernization, "small peasant production" was burdened with a negative image and had no hope and future. Faced with the current food safety problems, the traditional small-scale peasant production has a new value. It can promote the small farmers in the suburbs to adopt the agricultural product marketing strategy of resorting to quality differentiation, and make the small farmers around the city produce with new ideas.