Rural Market Analysis

Mohastan Ghadh Haat Bazaar and Gohati Haat

The haat we went for surveying was “Mohastan Ghadh Haat Bazaar and Gohati Haat”. We observed the entire area and looked for different kind of products and services; tried to find out the areas from where products were getting into the market place and also the areas from which buyers were buying products for their markets. We were looking for the way the price of products used to get changed as it travels to different part of the country. We interviewed many individuals and used structured questionnaire survey in order to obtain our desired information.

Mohasthan Ghadh Haat, Bazaar and Gohati Haat

It was near about Shah Sultan Mazar and the museum of archeology department. It sits on the play ground of “Mohasthan Mahi Saur Degree College” covering about the area of 1 bigha. It’s well known for its large number of qualitative and quantities goods and better transport facility as it sits beside the Bogra-Rongpur high way. In the Gohati hat there are cows and goats that come from other villages. It sits twice a week: Wednesday and Saturday.

We went there on Saturday which was a haat-day. As we arrived at the market place early in the morning, we could observe simultaneously the way the bazaar and the haat were setting up.

Haat: It took relatively little more time to set up than that of bazaar. But

as the number of sellers and buyers increasing the intensity of transactions was getting very high with the scale of goods that were purchased and soled.

The number of different goods those were sold in haat was very few but the volume of each of those products was a lot more hither than bazaar.

Even though there was a big number of a buyer, but sellers were in a rush to sell their products.

Bazaar: Bazaar started relatively earlier in the morning comparing to haat

with owners opening their shops.

In bazaar we found a good variety of different types of products and services. But the quantity of these products was not large in volume.

The number of seller was fixed but the number of buyer was varying. Even in that situation sellers were not eager to sell their products.

Table: Mohasthan Haat and Bazaar at a glance based on our obtained information

Particulars Haat Bazaar

FrequencyWednesday and Saturday

Every day

Time Morning – Evening Morning – Evening

Available Goods

Vegetables: cabbage, cauliflowers, potato, radish, eggplant; Meat; Fish.

Vegetables; Grains; Electronics; Hardware; Stationary; Medicine.

Price

Depends on Market Status

Usually 1 or 2 taka less than that of Bazaar

Depends on Market Status

Area 8 to 9 Acre Smaller than Haat

Buyer & Seller

Whole Sellers Middle Men Retailers Consumers

Retailers Consumers

Competition High Low

Origin of Products

Surrounding Villages: Baghopara, Polashbari, Gokul; Outside Bogra district

Surrounding Villages; Bogra; Dhaka; Chittagong.

ConsumerSurrounding Villagers; Bogra; Dhaka; Chittagong; Sylhet.

Surrounding Villagers

Products in Haat & Bazaar

As we surfed through the haat and bazaar we found many of every kind of consumer products and some industrial products. We sorted them in form of category. We found two unique products.

Consumer Products:

Convenience Products – Vegetables, Sweets, Grain, Flower, Meat, Fish, Oil, Egg, Cigarette etc,

Shopping Products – Clothing, Ornament, Mobile & SIM, Crockery, Basket, etc.

Special Products – Vehicle, Electronics, Furniture, etc. Unsorted Products – Medicine, Funeral cloth, etc.

Industrial Products: Fertilizer, Machine oil, Tool Box, Look & Key, Screw & Nuts.

Service: Saloon, Computer & Mobile Servicing, Cobbering, Tailoring, Laboring, Photo Studio, Cycle Repairing, Carpentering, Rent-A-Tractor.

Unique Products: Curd, Kotkoti.

ProductsProducts

Consumer ProductsConsumer ProductsIndustrial Services Unique

Convenience

Unsorted Products

Special Products

Shopping

Transportation

In the case of the study on transportation facility we enclosed our concerned area on: 1) how consumers, middlemen and whole seller are caring their purchased products to their desired place from Mohasthan haat and 2) how the producer, middle men and whole seller are bringing their goods into the haat:

Table: Transportation Media

Inward to Mohasthan Haat

Outward of Mohasthan Haat

Consumer-Middle Men

Rickshaw, Van, Votvoti, Pickup.

Cycle, Rickshaw, Van, Votvoti, Pickup.

Whole seller Pick up, Truck. Pick up, Truck.

Inward & Outward Products of the Market

As we searched in both haat and bazaar for the products that come into Mohasthan and get out to the market of different places of the district and as well as the country, these are the Inward and Outward products we have found:

Inward Products: Live stock, Fertilizer, Medicine, Consumer products, Furniture, Hardware, Fish, Electronics products, Cloths, Crockery, Salt.

Outward Products: Live stock, poultry, Fish, Vegetable, Rice, Potato, Maize, Yogurt

Distribution Channel

In most of the cases consumer do not get the product direct from producer. The product revolves around some hands and then finally gets into the hand of consumer. This forges any product to pass through a distribution channel. It is a set of interdependent organization or individual that makes a product or service available for its end users or consumers. In Mohasthan haat we found different types of intermediaries. These are mainly:

Producer Middleman Wholesaler Retailer

Consumer

Inward Distribution Channel (Onion):

For inward distribution channel we took Onion as exemplary product. Farmer from other place is the producer for this product. Then he sells it to middle man or direct to whole seller. Then the whole seller sells it to local retailer. In this position the retailer can keep his products in cold storage and again get it back. From there on the consumer buys it from the retailer.

Outward Distribution Channel (Cauliflower):

For outward distribution channel we consider Cauliflower as exemplary product. Local Farmer from is the producer for this product. Then he sells it to middle man or direct to whole seller. Then the whole seller sells it to retailer in other places. In this position the retailer can keep his products in cold storage and again get it back. From there on the consumer buys it from the retailer.

Whole

Seller

Whole

Seller

RetailerRetailer

ProducerProducer

Local

Retailer

Local

Retailer

Consume

r

Consume

r

Zhinaidah,ZessoreZhinaidah,Zessore

RetailerRetailerConsume

r

Consume

r

Comilla, Thakurgaon, Noakhali, Jessor,Chittagong

Comilla, Thakurgaon, Noakhali, Jessor,Chittagong

Challenges of existing Distribution Channel

Some of the major challenges we discovered that this distribution channel I facing:

In the existing distribution channel the producer do not get the deserving price.

Most part of the profit goes to the whole seller. Young producer are thinking they must establish their own

transportation network, using which they can take their products directly to places like Dhaka, Chittagong, etc.

Producers are now willing to communicate with retailers if not consumers

Value Chain Analysis:

For value chain Analysis we took three different types of local products which are produced at farmer level. These are: Spring Onion, Palong Shak and IRRI (BR33) rice.

Value Chain Analysis 1 (Spring Onion):

We took Spring Onion as exemplary product and observed and analyze its production cost and then how its price was changing till it reaches to consumer. The farmer took 5 shato to as production land.

Table: Value Chain Analysis 1, Spring Onion

Intermediaries Particulars Selling Price

ProducerProducer

Local

Retailer

Local

Retailer

Whole

Seller

Whole

Seller

Producer Input Selection Land: 145 Tk (5 shato/ 3.03

katha) Seeds: 100 Tk Fertilizer: 1000 Tk

Production Processing Sowing: Own Fertilizer: 700 Tk Labour: 605 Tk Pesticide: 655 Tk Irrigation: Own

Processing Activities Clening: Own Packing: Straw from Home

Distribution Transportation: Own Van

Unit Cost Price: 12.35 Tk Unit Selling Price: 15.00

15.00 Tk

Middle Man 17.00 Tk

Whole Seller 21.00 Tk

Retailer 25.00 Tk

Value Chain Analysis 2 (Palong Shak):

For the second value chain analysis we took Palong Shak as exemplary product and observed and analyze its production cost and then how its price level was changing till it reaches to consumer. The farmer took 9 shato to as production land.

Table: Value Chain Analysis 2, Palong Shak

Intermediaries Particulars Selling Price

Producer Input Selection Land: 81 Tk (9 shato) Seeds: 50 Tk Fertilizer: 450 Tk

Production Processing Sowing: Own Fertilizer: 100 Tk Pesticide: 25 Tk

10.00 Tk

Irrigation: Own Processing Activities

Packing: 15 Tk Distribution

Transportation: 50 Tk Unit Cost Price: 7.175 Tk Unit Selling Price: 10.00

Middle Man 11.00 Tk

Whole Seller 14.00 Tk

Retailer 15.00 Tk

Value Chain Analysis 3 (BR33):

This time we took IRRI (BR33) as exemplary product and observed and analyze its production cost and then how its price was changing in different intermediate level till it reaches to consumer. The farmer took 1 bigha to as production land.

Table: Value Chain Analysis 3, IRRI (BR33)

Intermediaries Particulars Selling Price

Producer Input Selection Seed Bed: 1650 Tk (for 1

bigha) Seeds: 825 Tk

Production Processing Land Preparation: 960 Tk Fertilizer: 3053.5 Tk Sowing: 1400 Tk Irrigation: 800 Tk Weeding: 850 Tk Pesticide: 550 Tk

Processing Activities Harvesting & Clening: 1800

Tk Packing: 190 Tk

Distribution Transportation: 550

Total Cost Price: 12364.5 Tk Unit Cost Price: 10.3 Tk

15.00 Tk

Unit Selling Price: 17.50

Middle Man 20.00 Tk

Whole Seller Paddy to Rice 32.00 Tk

Retailer 34.00 Tk

Bargaining Power of Buyers & Sellers

In case of haat we found that the buyers have upper hand on sellers, as seller must sell or otherwise their transportation cost will become double. Some sellers who sell vegetables they don’t even have this option to go back and sell in another day.

In case of bazaar sellers have the bargaining power over consumers. In bazaar sellers don’t need to sell their goods immediately, rather they can wait till the opportune moment and look for better price. On the other hand buyers must have to buy as because it’s mostly the consuming goods that they look for.

Promotional Activities

At present, product’s and sales promotion is an important aspect of marketing strategy. It includes advertising, reduction of price, distribution of free sample, frequent communication with consumers etc. In case of Mohasthan haat we came across some of these kind promotional activities. Such as:

Miking: It is a common practice in Mohasthan Bazaar to sell products, especially for local or low range industrial products. The advertisement we came across was for “Jambac” ointment. They selling some other medicine as well.

Postering: As we moved through the bazaar we noticed most of the shops had posters of different products on the outer side of it. Many of them were of bangle cinema.

Signboard: We found some signboards in Mohasthan Bazaar as well. Some of those were for dentistry, mobile flexi load, and medicine of domestic animals, etc.

Free Sample Distribution: We found it for a number of local industrial products in bazaar. We observed people got motivated by that offer.

Discount Announcement: It was actually running at that time for local agricultural products. We found it in some grocery store for few consumer goods as well.

Buy 1 get 1 Free Policy: In bazaar some little colorful card board were hanging saying about this promotion offer about some uncommon brand of hair oil, body lotion and toothpaste. Later we identified many of them were fake products. Outside of the bazaar some of the local industrial products were being sold on vans using the same offer.

Fake Products

While we were looking round into different shops in bazaar we detected some products which looked like renowned or famous brand of the country but when get took a close look at those we found those were not the actual products. Either they were refilled with fake ingredients in used old container or the name of the brand was written on new container in such a way that villagers would not be able to identify them as fake products. Even though “Mohasthan bazaar” is competitive, supply of fake products is still ongoing. Here are 10 of 22 fake products that we had presented:

Table : Fake Products

Fake Product Real Product Difference

Tibet Pricly Heat Power

Tibet Prickly Heat Power

Container quality and Font

TABAT SNOW TIBET SNOW Container color and Name

MERIL BABY LOTION MERIL BABY LOTION Container qualityPONO’S BODY LOTION

POND’S BABY LOTION Name

PON’S VANISHING CREAM

POND’S VANISHING CREAM

Name

ELIDHE MESTA GUARD

ELITE MESTA GUARD Container and Name

TINGE TANGE NameFAIRA & LOVELY FAIR & LOVELY NameBALA SHOES BATA SHOES NameDOVE BAR DOVE BAR Container

Facilities

Depending on our observation and according to the authority of the haat and bazaar, these are the special facility they are providing to the buyers and sellers:

Police & RAB Availability: According to the haat shomity if it is necessary they contact with Police or RAB on which the concern force will arrive in shortest time.

Money Borrowing from Haat Shomity: If any whole seller gets in need of money to purchase whole sale products from this haat, the haat shomity provides loan to those whole seller according in accordance to their bank account by signing proper legal paper.

Electricity: We have seen that the whole haat and almost all the shops in bazaar have electricity facility. As a result of that electronic products can be sold and serviced.

Law and Order Facility: according to the haat shomity they keep a keen eye on law and order scenario. If any kind of robbery is noticed they find out the thief. If needed they take help from police and RAB.

Godown for Whole-Seller (from PROSHIKA): After purchasing, if whole sellers find problem with transportation, they can rent local storage with reasonable cost with security.

Problems:

Even though it offers many facilities, it also has some major problems.

Narrow Roads: As the roads inside haat and bazaar are narrow, it creates a lot of difficulties for seller to carry in their products at rush hour.

Mud Road: except the main two roads all other roads are of mud. As a result of that in rainy season or if even when some amount of water is applied to products, roads get muddy which creates problem for passersby.

Poor Drainage System: Duo to poor drainage system waste material and used water gets stuck forming bad smell. It’s also very unhealthy.

Poor Toilet Facility: there are not enough toilets for the haat people as a big number of people gather in haat day.

Pick-Pocketing: even though law and order situation is good but still the authority cannot stop pick-pocketing completely.

Drug Addicted People: As like all around the country, drug addiction is also a problem here. They are infecting the young minds and inducing crimes.

No Shed: The main ground of haat does not have any shed. Even some parts of the bazaar also do not have any shed. It creates in the time of rainy season.

Major Findings

Conclusion