SOP for Marketing of Produce

I. Purpose:
This instruction gives the Standard operating procedures to be followed to market
produce.

II. Scope:
This SOP describes general methodology to be followed by the FPO
members/Employees for management marketing of produce.

III. References:
Internal Operation

IV. Definitions:
Marketing of produce is the process of selling the produce in the market post
harvesting through carious channels.

V. Process:

Current Marketing of Produce:

Krishicare FPO farmers currently market their products in 3 ways as shown below.
1. In this process Agri produce is bought by FPO from farmers and sold in the local
mandis. The products include- vegetables like brinjal, okra, haldi, chilli etc. However,
several issues like price volatility and demand instability mire this method.

Farmer FPO Local Mandi

2. In this process agri produce is bought by FPO from farmers and sold to processing
units. However, the problem with this method is the monopolistic nature of the
processing units and the upper hand enjoyed by them. The products that follow this
method are
a. Mango& Green Chilli: Graded at farm level and sold to Vadilal for further
processing
b. Baby Corn: Sold to Sahyadri mall, which further sells it to Phill Press
Company.
c. Papaya: Sold to a papaya processing unit in Navsari

Farmer FPO Processing Unit

 3. In this process agri produce are sold directly to traders. The products include Mango,
Haldi

Farmer FPO Traders

Proposed Marketing Plan for the Produce:

Procurement From Value Addition Own Retail

Farmer Grading/Soritng Stores/HoReCa/MT/
/Cleaning Online

In order to market product in more efficient ways as per above proposed marketing plan
following marketing standard operating procedure the company needs to follow before
venturing into the market. This will result in minimising the risk and optimising the success.

1. Identification of Marketing Processes:

a) Market Research: - Pre launching the product in market which is covered already
by the FPO it should conduct a basic market research. There is a growing trend in
big cities to purchase from modern trade and online stores. Also due to traceability
and purity concern urban consumer prefer branded retail stores. So the market is
supposed to grow and there exist uniform demand in the market throughout the
year. So targeting them through retail stores, modern trade and online will serve a
long purpose. However prior to launching product the FPO should thoroughly
gauze the demand and potential of the market also the market scenario. It should
develop a standard to analyse these factors.
b) Sales Performance: - Extensive analysis of production as well as demand of
particular product in the market taking into account capability of scaling up
procurement capability of FPO need to be done. There should be clear
demarcation and growth strategy for each channel that should be equivalent to
market growth rate of particular segment.
c) Promotion and Business Development: - Brand development – visibility –
access to institutional buyers, online targeting through social media video
messages. Clear building of USP of the organization before market launch.
“Residue Free F&V”.
d) Inventory Management: - In case of expanding take into account future
requirement of warehouse space also expand in a way proportion to meet the
demand requirement. Always be ready to serve regular customer.
e) Liaisoning with other function: - Thorough integration of procurement,
warehouse, logistic, retail function through mobile application or some online
 technique that should be quick to respond. Computerised monitoring and
delegation. A proper procedure need to be develop to integrate these function
before going big in retail landscape.

2. Identification of Operations :

Clear identification of following operation involved should be done before venturing

into retail zone and own branding. Also team and linkages reporting system their
operations along with coordination should be clearly identified. This division of work
and identification is better for responsibility and work efficiency. All these teams and
their operation need to be integrated before hand. Channel partner integration
communication and contracts need to be drawn clearly before hand. Following
operations need to be taken into account and integrated before going to market.

a) Procurement
b) Value addition and warehousing
c) Logistic and Supply chain
d) Retail Store
e) Other channel Partner
f) Support (Financial, Technical)

3. Formation of Standard operating Procedures :

The management staffs needs to design standard operating procedure for each and
every activity. As it will help FPO to deliver the promise it had made to the customer,
in prudent manner. There should be checklist form and formalisation of each
individual task by identifying them before going to the market.

4. Identification of People involved :

Once the flow of work is determined and hard ware structure is fixed the most
important process involve is identifying people responsible for all these activities.
This helps to clearly delegate the responsibility, authority and accountability. It also
helps to train and communicate the people involved about their goals and
expectations. There should also be training of the people involved to meet the
requirements as per operating procedures of their task.
The above standard operating procedure should be diligently followed by the organisation
before going to market in any area. This will result in robust frame work and mitigate the
risk.