Remember nobody wishes to buy rotten fruits or
bad perishables farm produce. Monetary value of
a fruit depend largely on its state of freshness. Heat,
bacteria infections among many other factors that
affect fruits while transporting it through long
distance.

Most farmers producing perishables harvest
and sell very fast and cheap to
avoid spoilage, and largest percentage of risk within
the perishable goods value chain system is taken by
traders.

Trading perishables can be so profitable because the
farmers wish to sell out on time after harvest and
make little gain while the traders takes the risk upon
him/her self to transport these goods from farm to
most populated part of the country where people
don’t have access to fresh farm produce and they
depend on this traders for fruits.

Perishable agricultural farm produce-traders tend to
make 100% profit on every trade/ investment at the
same time, when the business goes toward negative
direction, they tend to lose 60% of invested fund on
the business.

We shall discuss briefly on 3 major factors that affect
perishables agricultural farm produce business and as
a young agropreneur, you must work on these factors
to see your business successful or grow with time.

Hint* as a young agropreneur, never venture into this
type of business if you don’t have market for it. Do not
procrastinate on how profitable the business is before
buying from farm. Work effectively on your supply and
prospective buyers or agent before going to buy from
the farmers. This alone is one of the key ways to avoid
lost or bad business.

Transportation: These factors play the most
important role in perishables business. Except you
have your own logistics department in place, it’s going
to be a bit difficult in most especially when you
wanted to start little and your load can not full one
truck at a time, in this cases, consolidation of goods
become only option which causes delay, lost of goods
and spoilage of goods. Moving perishables farm
produce in some advance countries can be done
effectively by Train (refrigerated containers) but in
the case of Nigeria, we depend largely on road
transport system. Bad road network, long distance and
unforeseen mechanical problems of the truck is
undisputed. So if you are going into tomatoes or
banana business, work so much on the effective mode
of transportation.

Note: Travelling a long distance within a short period
of time is important. Nobody buys rotten fruits or
goods at a good or premium price.

Heat/ High Temperature: Most fruits or perishables
agricultural produce of high economic value keep up
its freshness at a lower temperature. High
temperature encourages the ripening process which
speed up the rate at which the fruit ripe and probably
gives a favorable condition for bacteria growth on the
outer-most part or skin of the fruit. The higher the
temperature, the higher the rate of spoilage. As a
young agropreneur, check carefully the type of truck
that will favor the transportation of your goods from
the farm to your preferred market location, open
body truck, cover body truck, flat-bed or cold room.

continue https://sehgatehub./2017/04/01/trading-perishables-agricultural-produce-can-be-so-risky-and-profitable/