Agro-technical recommendations for the marketing of agricultural products

Dear readers, I have been socializing some aspects concerning the commercialization of agricultural products, but in this opportunity to end momentarily this thematic series I will share with you some technical recommendations that should be considered when commercializing an agricultural product.

As everyone knows fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products need special handling to be marketed, consumers are very demanding and are always looking for food that is fresh and free of physical damage, for this reason, For this reason, the producer must be governed by a series of rules that often can be generalized, although there are some distribution and processing companies that place their own rules to receive the raw material, these requirements or standards are important when marketing the products as they guarantee quality which translates into a better price for the producer.

In this regard, some specialists in charge of food distribution in Venezuela point out that when agricultural products are marketed, there are losses of approximately 25 to 30% of the total volume mobilized. In view of the above, it is necessary to describe some of the handling or standards that agricultural producers must comply with before marketing their products. The standards are as follows:

- The first rule that an agricultural producer must comply with is the selection of the rubro to be marketed, the optimal point of harvest must be considered, as this can influence the loss of quality of the item, for example, a banana harvested prematurely will not reach some ideal characteristics for marketing as the size, there are banana processing companies (tostoneras) that require some standards in size to be processed.

- It is also important to make sure that the items are free of some pathogens such as fungi, bacteria and others, which create an unpleasant appearance on the surface of the fruit and/or vegetable and can contaminate the rest of the items.

- It is also necessary to verify that the items do not present physical damage, for this, care must be taken at the time of harvesting or packaging of the product, physical damage can also be observed at the time of transfer, this can occur frequently when eggs are moved, these can be broken which results in the presence of certain unwanted organisms and can contaminate the rest of the products.

- As for items such as milk, it should be taken into account that it is a product that needs adequate temperatures during handling to preserve its initial organoleptic characteristics, therefore, the producer must have refrigeration cellars or otherwise distribute it as soon as possible to a reception area to prevent it from losing some ideal characteristics for consumption.

- Another factor that the producer must consider from the technical-agronomic point of view to obtain better yields and quality, is planting varieties of crops that are adapted to the agro-climatic conditions of their agro-ecosystem and that are also to the taste of the consumer and more resistant when it comes to moving them.

Dear readers, these are just some aspects that should be taken into account when marketing an agricultural product, it is no secret that it is an arduous task to establish crops, since the agronomic management applied such as fertilization, irrigation, pest, disease and weed control, among others, that guarantee the quantity and agricultural production, also influence the quality of the same.