Specifics of marketing in overcoming discrepancies on the market of agricultural products

Abstract

In this paper, authors examine the role of marketing in overcoming the discrepancies between supply and demand, with a special emphasis on agricultural markets. Discrepancies arise as a result of specialization in production and mass production, whereby individual companies tend to make the best use of existing resources and produce large amounts of a narrow assortment, because in this way they achieve the best business results using economy of scale. Consumers, on the other hand, have diverse needs, preferences and aspirations and often demand non-standardized, customized and specific products. The result is a conflict of relatively narrow supply of individual companies and the diverse needs for products and services manifested by consumers. One of the fundamental roles of marketing is to efficiently connect supply and demand and eliminate the existing discrepancies, which is achieved by use of effective marketing channels. Specifics of agricultural products to a certain extent make harmonization of supply and demand even more difficult, taking into account the existence of a large number of small producers on the supply side, the limited seasonality of agricultural products, specific requirements related to storage, and dispersion of demand, which hinders the realization of all marketing activities in overcoming discrepancies. Taking into account previous specifics, there is a need of specialization of intermediaries who act in marketing channels, in order to efficiently eliminate discrepancies between supply and demand in the market of agricultural products.