2013 CIOPORA Chronicle

PBR and marketing
The importance
of plant
breeders’rights
(PBR) for marketing
purposes cannot be
underestimated.
Breeders play vital
role in supply chain
by Jaap N. Kras
A
company has in principal
only two tools to sell its
products. It has to offer the
products at a cheaper price than its
competitor or it has to sell a unique
product. To conquer a position by
being cheaper than your competitors
is a dead end street with only
losers at the end. Being unique or
creating the impression of being
unique (Coca Cola) is a better
road to creating a stronger market
position. Trademarks communicate
the unique origin of a product, a
patented product or breeder’s right
protected product is always unique,
at least at the start, otherwise it
would not be granted a patent or
breeder’s right in the first place.
Shortening the
supply chain
What we know of modern markets
is that production and consumption
are coming closer and closer
together. All the steps in between
change and will be reduced to
serving functions for the delivery
of products from the producer to
the consumer. Overall there’s a
tendency to streamline the market
down to its basics.
As long as it is cheaper to collect
and regroup the products from
the growers before transporting,
shipping, cooling and post harvesting
them well, then this function
will remain. But do we need an
independent wholesaler, freight
forwarder, transporter and warehouse
provider to do that or could
all these functions be performed
by one company? And when and
where does the process start?
Enormous time pressure
Today’s wholesale companies are
order driven: they start their work
after receiving their orders. By
working this way, the whole process
Breeders with their unique Intellectual
Property Right (IPR) products go directly
to retailers: a chain or a florist (group of
florists), to understand the products the
retailer wants to sell.
comes under enormous time pressure
especially as when working
with perishables. This means that
prices go up and the quality goes
down as soon as flowers are cut and
brought in the supply chain.
If we consider the product bought
by a consumer, a final product, to
be different from the raw product
harvested by a producer, then the
final product has to be produced
somewhere. Basic and specialty
products are produced by a florist
whereas supermarket chain products
are produced by the suppliers
of the retailing industry; the
bouquet makers. If a florist is the
producer of the final product, the
bouquet maker is the producer of
the final product for the chains.
Know your market
The outcome of market research is
a decisive factor in the role of the
company in between the farmer and
the last outlet. The first and most
important thing breeders and growers
must do is know their market.
Products for the basic demand
or the specialty demand differ
structurally from products for the
supermarkets. Breeders and growers
have to be aware of that and concentrate
on either the production
for the florist or production for the
supermarket. As a results growers
have to differentiate themselves in
the marketplace, make choices and
concentrate on one process.
Service supply machine
We are on the edge of the next
step. Breeders with their unique
Intellectual Property Right (IPR)
products go directly to retailers: a
chain or a florist (group of florists),
to understand the products the
retailer wants to sell. Then they go
together to farmers to produce the
requested final products according
to the wishes of the retailer and his
consumers: numbers, qualities, and
delivery dates.
The whole post harvesting process
changes into a service supply
machine for these specific segments:
chains or florists. This process from
breeder to consumer differs for the
two main segments: supermarkets
and florists. The differences regard
the varieties, the size of the flowers,
the vase life, the transportation
and conditioning of the products
through the supply chain and the
marketing and price setting of the
products by the retailers.
The retailer can concentrate on the
sales and marketing of his products
and, if necessary, on producing the
final products himself for the basic
need (florists) and the specialty need
(parties). The breeder and the retailer
should team up to manage the
whole process with all the different
choices and decisions an entrepreneur
has to make. |||
About the author
Jaap Kras is an industry veteran
and owner and publisher of
FloraCulture Interantional.
CIOPORA Chronicle April 2013 | www.FloraCultureInternational.com 35