How growers experience price discovery in wholesale markets

What is shaping horticulture

Horticulture spans fruit, vegetables, flowers and plantation crops, with fast-moving prices and a high risk of post-harvest loss. Growers sell through mandis, traders and increasingly direct-to-buyer channels.

• Prices swing daily in mandi markets
• Post-harvest handling decides how much produce reaches buyers
• Organised retail and exporters set new quality standards

An agri-marketing reform programme, working in Maharashtra & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

An agri-marketing reform programme

Sector

Horticulture

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Government research

The programme was promoting electronic trading in wholesale vegetable markets and wanted to understand how growers currently experienced pricing, deductions and payments.

• Answer the core question: how growers experience price discovery in wholesale markets.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.

Scope: 1,000 grower interviews at 14 markets.

Audiences we typically reach in horticulture

Growers and orchard ownersCommission agents and tradersNurseriesFresh-produce retailersExporters and packhouses

Coverage: Maharashtra & Karnataka. Market: India. 14 markets covered.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Grower exit interviews
3. 3Commission agent interviews
4. 4Insight

Interviewers spoke to growers as they left the market, while transactions were fresh in their minds, recording prices, deductions and payment timing. Interviews with commission agents captured the other side of the trade.

Quantitative researchQualitative researchGovernment research

• Respondents were selected across Maharashtra & Karnataka using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

grower interviews

1,000

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Growers worried less about the auction price than about deductions and delayed payments.

Interviewing at the moment of experience produces far more accurate answers than recall weeks later.

• Build on the core insight: interviewing at the moment of experience produces far more accurate answers than recall weeks later.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: growers worried less about the auction price than about deductions and delayed payments.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The programme added payment-timeliness tracking and clearer deduction slips to its reform plan.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims
• Evaluation findings with programme recommendations

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what quality standards do modern buyers expect?