Alternative marketing channels for the development of the local market for organic agricultural products in Chile

Abstract

Agroecology, vital approach to sovereignty and global food security is a paradigm underlying
organic production systems. These have normative regulations and represent a segment that
has significantly increased its sales in the world. In Chile, short commercialization channels
absorb organic agricultural products (OAP), offering an interesting local market to identify and
characterize. In this study, explorative and descriptive methodologies were used, allowing for
a triple approach combining the analysis of secondary sources, surveys and semi structured
interviews. These allowed to identify 11 short commercialization channels already existing in
the chilean market. They differ according to the production system area and type of product to
be marketed. Fairs, farms and cooperative sales as well as supermarkets were highlighted as
commercialization channels. These applies for the majority of commercialized products analyzed
in this study such as vegetables, fruits, cereals and legumes.