The Travel Consolidator Demystified

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They are also called “Bucket shops”, but travel consolidators provide their own contribution to the success of tourism. These individuals basically buy airline tickets from the travel vendors at lowered prices and then sell them to the public or travel counselors. They can get these reduced prices (also called “bulk rates”) because of a special arrangement that they have with travel vendors. This arrangement that is forged between the consolidator and vendor identifies the minimal sales volume, responsibilities, obligations, and rates. Vendors will not negotiate with consolidators who are unable to sell an ample volume.

The Philippine consolidator is a smart person, since he or she can figure out other ways to get cabins, rooms or seats. They do this by buying unsold inventory at least a day or two before the scheduled departure. They know that the airlines do not expect their seats to be filled up half a year in advance, but the airlines might like to let go of unsold inventory at least 14 days prior to departure since there are less chances of these tickets selling through normal channels.

Consolidators can take care of a number of travel merchandise: space on tours, rental vehicles, cruise cabins, hotel rooms, and airline seats. But then, a lot of travel consolidators focus on air travel, so tourists should not expect other items aside from this. Most air consolidators only offer tickets to international destinations, although there are some firms that take care of flights that go around the United States.

The travel agencies themselves can be consolidators. The companies with high global air sales could get in touch with an airline or two to set up negotiations. Their topics will cover booking procedures, responsibilities, liabilities, sales quotas, and fare among other things. Since a huge number of these travel agencies are not able to promise the required sales volumes under these talks, then will talk to an existing Philippine consolidator to work on this rather than turning into consolidators themselves.

Facts about the Philippine Food and Beverage Market

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Because the Republic of the Philippines is modernizing their internal system of food retailing, this action is opening a window of opportunity for the exporters of F&B items to do business in the country. This comes at a good time, since this nation already has an established market for different dairy exports and a growing population in both rural and urban areas. The most common food and drink merchandise that Filipinos import and purchase include organic natural items that are based on seafood or vegetables, and wines and meat of top quality.

An Economics student who wants to work as a Philippine grocery exporter must know that the consumer spending of the nation is fueled by the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) department and OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). In the year 2011, the BPO sector earned as much as US$11 billion, while the OFWs brought home around $23 billion in remittances. In that same year, hypermarkets and supermarkets made use of most of the dispersed $9.1 billion for their food packaging, and the smaller grocery retailers got to use the rest of the distributed funds.

Going back a year, the overall retail sales of the groceries reached $32 billion since the market was 67% taken over by the different grocery retailers. Tiny independent stores and “Sari-sari” stores (“sari” means variety, so these types of establishments are the same as convenience stores) are still the biggest grocery chains as far as overall sales are concerned. Buying grocery items increased in high and middle income customers who are located in urban areas, and even if the retail sales of supermarket items went up 24% during the years of 2005-2010, the hypermarket reaped the most benefits with a 33% growth factor.

Thanks to the efforts of a Philippine grocery exporter, independent food service chains that operated in 2010 dominated close to 80% of the market, and they raked in a total of $8.2 million. On the other hand, the traditional convenience stores are setting up more branches to cover a wider range and sell more imported items of top quality.

Introducing the Retail Distributor

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What do these people do? Retail distributors function as the middle men between the manufacturers and the consumers. When a company creates a product, it normally does not directly sell the merchandise to the end user. What happens is that the item is distributed in big amounts to a retail distributor and then it is the responsibility of this individual to sell these commodities via a retail shop.

Food Distributors from Philippines Supplier talk about the corporations or people who generate or put together a particular item. Most manufacturing occurs in nations where labor costs are low, particularly the Philippines or China. The merchandise is then exported to other locations that also sell them.

Because of this business practice, the firms that generate the products – whether it is locally where the commodities will chiefly be sold or offshore – will form a chain of retail distributors who will take care of selling the items to the buyers. Manufacturers could possess an agreement of exclusive distribution where it only lets a single organization sell its items. Although what usually happens is that the producers would have contracts with numerous retailer distributors.

When these distributors buy merchandise, they are buying them at wholesale rates. These costs are lower due to the volume of the commodity they purchase. In general, the bigger the distributor, the higher the discount they get for a specific product. As a result, the smaller distributors would have a difficult time getting their share of the merchandise because they are forced to pay more for it.

The food distributors from Philippines supplier get the products and then give them prices, although the producer might give a suggested price to help the distributors decide. On the other hand, distributors also have the power to give their own price values, and they are more likely to price the products higher than the amount that they purchased it for. This is how retail distributors earn profit. There are manufacturers that will set a limit on the price so that the dispersal of the products can be controlled.

Explaining the Principles of Fair Trade

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Fair Trade refers to a movement that advocates social policy, environmental security, and impartial standards that concern international labor that is related to the trading and manufacturing of commodities, specifically the ones that are imported to developed countries from developing nations. It tries to keep equilibrium between the wealthy and poor consumers which is enforced by traditional trade.

It is a development method that is designed to infuse the need for the partnership between the consumer and international trading Philippines to go past the simple relationship between seller and buyer in the system of trading. While Fair Trade keeps changing as the days pass, it recognizes the responsibilities and the needs of the consumer and manufacturer. It is also consumer-friendly since it is a mechanism which guarantees that services and products are of top quality and are priced reasonably.

Fair Trade gives power to workers and marginalized producers by helping them be economically independent. Their economic confidence is one of the significant factors that describe their current lifestyle. This concept is not just restricted to making sure that prices are reasonable. It considers environmental costs, social costs, and production costs.

Fair Trade is established through the following principles:

Ecological Integrity

Considering factors like pollution costs, energy consumption efficiency, and optimal utilization of raw materials help observe environmentally-sound ways of manufacturing.

Working Condition

Producers and workers have access to a healthy and safe working area.

Gender Equity

Apart from the compensation that women get for contributing to the manufacturing process, they get to be valued members of their respective communities and organizations. Women receive equal rights to decision-making, management, access to information, and participation in company activities.

Payment of a Reasonable Price

International trading Philippines and the producers would agree on a single fair price according to environmental costs, social costs, and manufacturing costs by participating in activities and discussion. Fair Trade also ensures the standard of equal pay in exchange for equal work by men and women. The traders give timely payments to the producers, and they offer financial support for expenses before production when possible.

All about Grocery Shopping On the Internet

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Supermarket items vary from other merchandise that can be bought online, such as books or music. A lot of these items can spoil or rot, so they have to be delivered as quickly as possible for reasons of freshness. Aside from this, supermarket products are considered “replacement items”. This means that the same item is more or less being bought regularly. Lastly, groceries are known as “high-touch” merchandise. It means that the customers prefer to analyze the items before buying them for purposes of quality.

Purchasing grocery product items over the Internet is still a lucrative and growing distribution channel. It employs direct access ways to let buyers shop from the comfort and safety of home and have their bought items delivered to them as quickly as possible. This is where the computer turns into the main form of communication. This system offers to chance for the customer to select and compare supermarket items in relevant and unique ways. As a result, the buyers have accepted this type of environment as a method of saving time and making their lives simple.

For the consolidators, the ongoing process shopping for groceries over the Internet will give them new applications for their research. These applications will help them come up with ways to improve on the existing system so they can further streamline the process of browsing and purchasing, and have the quality goods delivered to the customers at an even faster rate.

These research tools that have emerged from the system of buying online grocery product items are the result of connecting attitudinal data based on surveys and longitudinal transactional data at the single household level.  This is good news for the consolidators since it will mean quick feedback from the consumer from a helpful sample, in a maintained environment. It also means that the consolidators have the opportunity to monitor the behavior of the consumers over time. Finally, these research tools can be a cost-effective and efficient form of analysis and data collection compared to the conventional survey research.

Understanding Promotional and Branded Pricing

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Apart from program sales, those food items that have a brand (also known as “Value-added products”) normally include extra processing to make them different from the fresh ones. Consumers who have a keen eye can spot these additional processes by how they taste or look. This is another way for a company to become distinct from other brands since the buyers will remember how good it tastes.

Of course, the manufacturers will usually own the brand, as well as invest a lot of energy and resources to increase its awareness. The producers would sometimes work together with a distributor of consumer packaged goods, a foodservice operator, or a major retailer so that their lines of work would result in a joint brand. The two core channels for the sales of merchandise that is branded are foodservice and retail, with their own pricing methods.

As an example, the prices for protein or meat items that have been processed and branded are less precarious compared to the fresh commodity merchandise such as fish, mainly because these food items do not spoil as easily. The extra processing that fresh meat undergoes into a branded item normally furthers its shelf life. Processing methods include cooking, injection, canning, and chemical preservation, and the manufacturers regularly make use of frozen meat since the appearance of the finished item may rely more on the processing compared to how fresh the input material is.

The moment that branded food items are sold to the retailers, these are treated the same way as CPGs (Consumer Packaged Goods). The producer will usually finalize an MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) and choose an everyday buyer shelf price that is usually lower than the MSRP. It is up to the retailer if he or she will publish the MSRP and integrate it into the price benchmarking campaign, along with the distributor of consumer packaged goods. The list price (which is wholesale) will be balanced with the MSRP so that the wholesalers and retailers will get a margin.

All about the Various Forms of International Trade Games

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The international trade game may be used to educate students about an economic theorem on global trade, to shed light on the economic choices that a nation has to make, or to demonstrate the work of a specific global organization. International trade games are designed to encourage insights on topics like the impact of globalization, the power of major firms to bargain, the stand of the farmers who are living in a third world country, and fair trade among other subjects of interest.

A consolidator in Philippines will be familiar with this type of game, as they may illustrate international trade in an individual commodity or industry like the grain or coffee trade so that the participants will be more familiar with the issues. Some games have also been developed to help pupils understand how the financial markets of the world work. There are games that are made for classroom activities with different players, and other games can be found on the Internet for those who are learning at home.

Global trading games may be set up as an effective and fun way to teach economics to primary or secondary school children, or for those people who are working for NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) or other forms of development. These activities may focus on learning about the factors involved in international trade, or they may highlight the problems or disadvantages that are caused by global trade. Supporters of a specific tactic like fair trade could invent a game to showcase the efficiency of their campaign and demonstrate its execution. Some firms can provide learning materials so that lecturers and teachers can formulate their own global trading games that will emphasize the pointers in their classes.

The consolidator in Philippines knows that these group activities work by allowing the students to experience what it is like to make economic choices, witness what happens when they make those decisions, and deal with the reactions from the rest of the class. These games are truly an excellent medium for presenting international trade theorems in action.

Discover What the Food System Is About

 

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A food system is composed of every factor that is involved in the production of food (this refers to the manner that food is raised or grown; the procedures involved in slaughtering or harvesting food; and the process of preparing, packaging or packaging the food prior to selling it to the consumers) and the distribution of food (this refers to the mode of transferring the food and how or where the food is being sold to the buyers). This procedure can be split into two main forms: the regional (or local)/sustainable systems, and the singular industrial global system. The industrial food system covers a wider area compared to the other distribution channel.

The mainstream international food distributors begin their networking with big industrial farms that make use of factory farming (this process is used for animal food products) and monocropping (this process is used on vegetables and fruits). Products taken from these farms can be brought to a centralized building for further inspection, processing and/or packaging. After this is done, the food products are transferred globally or locally to finally get to where they need to go – normally a retail establishment or grocery store.

For more than half a millennium, the industry of food processing and farms has consolidated. This means that food is being carried over long distances, and the processing and production of the food is being handled by a few corporations. This may raise concerns about the security and safety of the food, and might close down some small processing buildings (canneries or slaughterhouses).

On the other hand, the international food distributors have fierce competition with the many sustainable food systems in the area. These regional or local systems distribute and produce food for a geographical area, instead of the international model. Food is raised or grown and harvested near the homes of the consumers, and then sold or transported in shorter distances. Overall, the regional/local food systems are connected with sustainable agriculture, compared to the industrial agriculture that the global system depends on.