ALTERNATIVE TRADING AND MARKETING
The concept of alternative trading and marketing stems from inequitable distribution of
marketing gains. While the producers get less the consumers get high prices the middlemen
who performs the function of moving the products gets most benefits from the chain.
The middlemen have the position of controlling the market. For rice the rice cartel dictates
the price.
Alternative trading and marketing schemes are designed to have NGOs and fair trade
practitioners participate in rhe marketing processses so as to be able to increase buying
prices from farmers at farm gate and do the processong like threshing milling warehousibg
and deliveries to POs Coops and thus consumer prices is reduced or be affordable to
consumers.
The system advocates for cutting the middlemen functions to barely minimum and hopes to
do efficient operations to be able to buy high and sell low while maintaining decent profit
margins
The practitioners of ATM also corrects malpractices in trade like advocating for good
quality; correct weights and a pricing scheme favorable to the marginalized farmers and
urban poor consumers
The function of middlemen in the market is being taken by ATM practitioners and peoples
organizations, NGOs and Cooperatives that think first of service rather than profit first
Economies of scale (volume) is also being maintained so that operational costs can be
covered.
Some say it does not work because one can t take the marketing functions from middlemen
(wholesalers retailers money lenders) but its practice has been experimented on in the
past and seems to work.
For GRASSROOTS before as an NGO did acquire transport trucks rice mill in Nuexa Ecija
and a jeepney to deliver to urban poor coops
We keep discussing and experimenting then and we recommend you may interview Atty
GA Benitez (Laean s husband) as he spent more time on this. Sa grassroots family we all
agreed wala na naterials published in our Advocate magazine nuon
Sorry ngayon lang ito dahil nagkaroon ako ng gawain at na guilty ako Che when Manay
Belle said you asked her too
The 4Ps of marketing: 1. The product- as rice is staple food we focus on rice. The product
which is rice goes through a lot of process from planting fertilizing harvesting threshing
milling and quality control and as such post harvest facilities are needed. The farmers as
producers even had to access financing from mobey lenders to be able to fertilize and pay
high interest costs. Rice at local level has high production costs conpared to orher countries
like Vietnam because of lack of gov t support. In Vietnam production costs are heavily
subsidized by the gov t. 2. The price- our rice prices at farm gate is too low as middlemen
dictates the farm gate prices. Most middlemen provided the production loans to farmers
thus farmers are compelled to sell to them at low farm gate prices. In the consumer end the
rice prices are high compared to other countries because the rice cartel dictate the price.
Notorious is the Binondo cartel. They even hoard rice to effect high consumer prices. The
export market takes a toll to poor consumers and farmers because imported hard is
cheaper than local rice
3. The place- the movement of the product from farm to households is a network of
processes. Bulk buying at farm gate then processing and distribution to coops entailed
transport support and post harvest facilities and maintaining a crew of loaders and
unloaders of the product
4. The promotion- this is very significant in raising awareness that our local rice is
authentic rice not plastic rice or synthetic obes dangerous to the health of consuners.
Promorion of local rice brings realuzation that the backbone of our economy is agriculture
and thus farmers need a market to sustain their families. Most buy cheaper and good
quality imported rice like Jasmine variety from Vietnam and leaving out our local farmers
from gaining.
They say the market corrects itself but when greed takes over the marginalized sectors of
our society shall be at a loss
Attendant to alternative trading and marketing is financing. The coops get a time period to
pay the rice from GRASSROOTS then
Did you remember Marty Belin from US Menonites Did eval of fair trade projects nila in
Bohol and the late Charlie assigned me as her research assistant. We did visited handicraft
exporters they funded in Cebu and Bohol . I focused also on the wages of the handicraft
workers and whether they observe fair trade practices. I remembered Angel coaching me
on how to do evaluation task.
Enter