Grappling With Market Access

For countries who’s grain economy relies on export sales, consumer behavior happens at great distance from farming choices. This can cause lags in responding to some fundamental market shifts.

Market access is lost in various ways, but it typically results from:

1. An uncompetitive price.

2. Non-compliance with regulations.

Similarly, market access is earned by offering products or features that are in demand, at a competitive price. Market growth is often generated by a shift in supply/demand fundamentals, such as:

• New government programs to encourage grazing and cover cropping creating new demand for the seeds landowners need to plant in order to qualify for the payments.

• Consumers seeking to connect with farms and buy better-for-you products are creating new demand for artisanal alternative foods, beverages, and textiles.

One predominant example of regulatory non-compliance causing market access issues is related to glyphosate, which shows up in everything from Cheerios to hummus, and bread to lentils. It comes from the chemical being sprayed on the crop just before harvest, and enters the food system at primary collection points known as grain elevators.

Supply Chain Map

Grain elevators are large storage and trans-shipping facilities located in rural crop production areas. After their loads are weighed and priced, farmers dump truckloads of grain into pits, from where it is elevated up into a series of augers, and deposited into a designated bin, from where it is later loaded out into trains, most often destined for ports.