major issues and challenges for improving the marketing

People Republic of China that recently became the WTO member will make worldmarket more competitive. The opening of frontiers goes in parallel withharmonization of business rules worldwide thorough regional agreement andglobal agreement such as GATT. Similar opening of what used to be closedindustry such as telecom, and privatization also mirrors this trend. Theconsequences of this fundamental trend are: There are more business opportunities than ever, There are more competitors than ever, Nations, enterprises and people alike are more vulnerable than ever.OpportunityThe changing trends in global markets will affect agribusiness sector. Aswe are all aware, the basic role of agriculture remains important as a source offoodstuffs, supports agro-based indutry, and as a source of employment especiallyin developing countries. In a more open economy, the external sector becomesmore important and therefore international marketing of agriculture products isextremely important. Trading of agricultural products is likely to continue toexpand in coming decades in response to rising populations and increasing fooddemand. A more open export markets in the future will provide marketopportunities especially for the countries with production surplus.According Pandey (1996) some of processed commodities such as sugarand oil, fruits and vegetables have a higher response to income changes than thatof basic staples. Similarly, Food and Agrocultural Organization (FAO) reveals thatthe processed products will dominate future demand of agricultural products.Traditional commodities such as tropical products showed negligible growth,cereals and sugar showed negative growth, and vegetable oils showed moderategrowth. Table 1 shows the detail information.Processed agricultural products do not only add the value but alsorelatively ease in trading since the processed product have less price fluctuations,easy to store, and last longer. In line with transparency in tariff policy, escalationtariff on processed product in international markets will be reduced in the future,increasing their market opportunities.The above table reveals that in the world markets, processed foodsindicated the most rapid growth. World markets for the traditional exports ofASEAN countries have been particularly weak. World exports of tropical productsgrew by only 1.7 percent per annum over the past decade. The growth rate ofvegetable oils has been somewhat higher at 4.8 percent per annum. Meanwhile,world trade in higher valued products such as meats, fruits and vegetables, fishproducts, and other processed products has been far more dynamic. Growth ratesfor many products have exceeded 10 percent per annum over the past decade. Thisreflects the high growth rates of many emerging markets and high-incomeelasticity of demand for higher valued products, including processed foods.AKP. Volume 2 No. 1, Maret 2004 : 25-3626