Schmidt: Direct marketers benefit from proximity to customers

Minister of agriculture Thomas Schmidt has encouraged the direct marketers of agricultural products, to compete with the food retail trade and play to their own strengths. “The farm shops or stands on the weekly market have many advantages compared to the supermarket,” the minister said on Saturday (August 29, 2015), on the day of direct marketing in Delitzsch (district Northern Saxony). “From the short routes the products take to the shelves and the direct contact between producer and consumer, a bond of trust arises from which both can benefit. With professional competence and information about his products, the farmer can durably bind the customers to his business. They in turn receive fresh food from the region."

Schmidt emphasized that it took a large commitment, and that, considering the challenges, it would be a great achievement to successfully run agricultural direct marketing in the long term. The farm shops and market stands would need a broad assortment and would need to be service oriented to be able to exist in the face of the strongly established competition. ”With successful direct marketing, an agricultural company can achieve a higher income,” said the minister. Direct marketing has great significance to the regional value, because it provides income and tourism in the rural area, and thus a sense of home arises.

The 190-member large association “Direktvermarktung in Sachsen e.V.” is the organizer of the yearly “Tages der Direktvermarktung”. There are altogether around 500 direct marketing agricultural companies in Saxony. They mostly offer meat and sausage from pig and cow, followed by fowl, and a smaller part from sheep, wild and goat, as well as milk and milk products. Furthermore, they sell eggs, fish, honey, potatoes, fruit, vegetables and baked goods. The main way of selling is through farm shops. Important pillars are also the weekly- and farmers’ markets, but increasingly also directly supplying to restaurants and communal kitchens.

Source: www.medienservice.sachsen.de