Abstract
Since organized living cooperative associations sold their environment-friendly agricultural products directly to independent consumers in the past, the general distribution channels such as wholesalers had difficulty in handling these products. However, the ratio of distribution via wholesale channel has been gradually increased as consumption of environment-friendly agricultural products has expanded. This study is to address vitalization of wholesale distribution for environment-friendly agricultural products by gathering previous statistical data and analysis. In addition, statistical analysis are conducted by utilizing surveys on forwarders, consumers for environment-friendly agricultural products. As a result, the products producers ship are distributed through dealers at producers sites, producers cooperatives, or food process companies, food companies, internet shopping malls, large-scale distribution companies, consumer groups such as living cooperative associations, direct outlets at consumers sites, or exports. Among the channels, the large-scale distribution companies and franchised special shops account for 47%, the general supermarkets 15.7%, and living cooperative associations 14.6% respectively. By utilizing the research results on producers and consumers, and the distribution weight by channels for environment-friendly agricultural products, the distribution channels for living cooperative associations, wholesale markets, and large scale distribution companies are compared and evaluated. As a result, the level of producers' and consumers' satisfaction for them is the lowest since the low selling price for producers and high distribution margins.
