Dry mushroom marketing strategies and channels
Mushroom production is an lucrative agribusiness. Fresh mushroom is a very valuable product. Its other forms are dried caps and mushroom powder, respectively. Dry mushroom marketing is a part of agricultural marketing strategy. This post shows, how can you sell your product through the different marketing channels?
Also read: Paddy straw mushroom cultivation, method and procedure
Index: Dry mushroom marketing strategy and channels
| Contents |
|---|
| (1). Scope |
| (2). Problems in marketing |
| (3). Marketing channels for dry mushroom |
| (4). Other channels |
(1). Scope
- Future demand: It will increase, but with a gradual speed.
- Competition: Competition will not be high.
- Marketing: It may improve.
- Scheme: Government may support it.
(2). Problems in marketing
2.1 Acceptance: The trend of the demand of fresh mushrooms is way higher than dry mushrooms.
2.2 Choice of variety: Customers always look for variety in products. They want to taste new products each time. All species of mushrooms are not suitable for drying purposes.
2.3 Taste: Mushroom is known for its taste as a food. The taste of mushroom lies excellent in its fresh form. Many species of mushrooms lost their taste quality after drying.
2.4 Price: The most important thing in any marketing system is the price of a particular product. The price of dry mushrooms is just the double of fresh mushrooms.
2.5 Lack of local markets: There is no local market for mushrooms. Due to lack of local markets, it becomes difficult to sell the dry products.
2.6 No proper marketing channel: Marketing channel is not organised. It is very difficult to get a proper marketing channel in India. Even if a marketing channel is found, then there is a problem of a communication gap.
Also read: Marketing of paddy straw mushroom
(3). Marketing channels for dry mushroom
Possible marketing channels
3.1 Social media
List of social media
- Facebook.
- WhatsApp.
- Instagram.
Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are the three major social media in present days. Everyone knows about these and have become addicted to it. All you have to do is:
Facebook marketing: Create a business page on Facebook and promote it. It is the part of digital marketing. You will get 300 – 1,000+ audience reach by investing a few US dollars.
WhatsApp: Everyone knows about WhatsApp, but the limitation is the availability of contact numbers. You can only create a WhatsApp group with available mobile numbers.
It is very effective when a group includes contacts with the same field or interest. Instagram marketing strategy is not more different from Facebook.
3.2 Email marketing
Email marketing is very straightforward. Create an email list of potential buyers and broadcast your product’s description once available. It is possible that many will not see your message. Gathering email address is a big task. It should be your secondary marketing strategy.
3.3 Self help groups
Try to find a self help group which is already in this business. It will make your task very easy. All you have to do is:
- Find a self help group already in this group.
- Discuss with the group members.
- Make a contract with them.
- Handover your product to SHG to sell.
Marketing becomes easy with a self help group. It is one of the very important marketing channel.
Also read: Oyster mushroom cultivation: method and procedure
(4). Other channels
4.1 Government institutes
Government institutes such as Krishi Vigyan Kendra or KVK, department of forestry, department of agroforestry, etc., have their own self help group of mushroom producing farmers. Mushrooms are produced by the farmers while marketing is done by the institutes. So always try to join these types of institutes.
4.2 Contract farming
3.5.1: Make contract with a wholesaler.
3.5.2: Make contract with a big buyer.
3.5.3: Make contract with a food processing company.
Also read: Marketing of oyster mushroom
4.3 Online e-commerce websites
Make a seller account on e-commerce website like:
- Amazon India (consider your own country).
- Flipkart India (consider your own country.
- eBay.
- Jio Mart.
- India Mart (do it in large scale).
- Other e-commerce websites.
4.4 Online buyers
There are many potential buyers outside your own country. Try to find them through online search.
For this:
- Go to web browser.
- Type mushroom buyer India (consider your own country).
- Inter into any relevant website.
- Go to their description or contact page (In this case, it is always the home page).
- Make a contact with the potential buyers.
4.5 Your own website
- Create your own website.
- You are not going to get huge traffic immediately.
- Try to advertise your product with right keywords.
- Use Google Ads to advertise your products by finding the right keywords on Google AdWords.