Marketing Groups of Agricultural Producers As a Determinant of Rural Development

Abstract

The paper seeks to determine the influence and the significance of marketing activities in the processes of agriculture’s integration with the food industry. It presents brief descriptions of marketing groups as examples of the integration of agricultural producers. In the sphere of agriculture’s integration with the food industry marketing plays a double role: firstly, it integrates vertically, strengthening the ties, and, secondly, it supports the strategy of achieving a market success which is indispensable to ensure sufficient advantages, attractive to the interested parties. In a vertically integrated system in which the leading role is played by the food industry marketing creates conditions for market expansion, diminishes the barrier to the sale of agricultural products, improves and stabilizes the profitability of production, reducing the income insufficiency of agricultural farms, provides information about the needs of the consumers of food articles and facilitates the adoption of strategic decisions. The formation of producer (marketing) groups, especially in the conditions of fragmented agriculture, is advantageous not only to the agricultural producers themselves but also to the food processing enterprises and the entire wholesale and retail trade network.