21 June 1984 Agricultural marketing skills developed at Lincoln College

Agricultural marketing was more than just marketing strategies and consumer promotion campaigns, the newly-appointed Professor of Marketing at Lincoln College, Dr A.C. (Tony) Zwart, said today.

"We are not only concerned with the development of marketing management skills, but also with creating an environment in which these skills can be used," he said.

"Lincoln College and other universities are currently producing well-trained marketing graduates.

"However, the number finding employment in export marketing of agricultural and horticultural products is still relatively small,"

Dr Zwart emphasised the difference between agricultural products and manufactured products.

"In business training the marketing problems are often seen to lie within an individual firm, but in agricultural and horticultural marketing problems involve several industries.

"These are producers, processors and exporters who must be co-ordinated for successful marketing."

Dr Zwart said that some people suggested simplistic solutions involving managing this complex of industries as a single firm.

"Unfortunately, the problem is far more complex than this. Increased co-ordination will undoubtedly be necessary in the future.

"However, it is also necessary to recognise and develop the strength of the individual industries," he said.

Dr Zwart said he could see the development of an agricultural-horticultural industry based more on the marketing of food products than our traditional agricultural products.

"To this extent our current focus on individual product marketing organisations may be a disadvantage in the future.

"This will require more co-ordination between marketing institutions, and more access for firms prepared to develop and market sophisticated food products for export.

"This would obviously involve a higher degree of processing and packaging, and even a mixture of products."

Dr Zwart said that the orientation of exporting organisations should be based on skills of marketing food products, rather than on any association with a traditional agricultural or horticultural product.

"Other major problems in agricultural horticultural marketing are in access to overseas markets," he said.

"This will always continue to be a problem because this places fixed demand restrictions on products the supply of which can be extremely variable.

"Co-ordinating supply and demand, and parallel development of optimal marketing strategies pose major problems.

"At the aggregate level the requirement of selling the current production and the objective of developing carefully planned marketing programs can conflict."

"While products remain in the traditional form we can continue to expect access problems and unstable prices reacting to current supply and demand conditions, and government policies."

Dr Zwart said that one of the most immediate problems facing the marketing of these products were the costs of production, processing and distribution.

"It is unreasonable for individual sections of the industry to have guaranteed returns or to cover costs of investment under such unstable external market conditions," he said.

"The sharing of these market risks should be the responsibility of all elements of the industry.

"It is important that incentive structures or pricing mechanisms should be developed allowing these risks to be shared equitably."

Dr Zwart said understanding this complex problem required a large range of marketing skills.

The marketing training at Lincoln College had developed and would continue to develop a combination of business, policy and economic understanding along with a background of

understanding of agriculture and horticulture, he said.

Further information from Dr Tony Zwart, Department of Agricultural Economics and Marketing, Lincoln College, Canterbury,  New Zealand.