Dairy farmers profit is relatively low compared to the end user milk purchase price of Bangladesh. A long debate has been running to pinpoint the reasons for this phenomenon. However, one of the trigger reasons is the milk farmgate price. Milk farmgate prices vary depending on the marketing channel used to flow the milk from producer to consumer. It also affects the marketing efficiency of the producer. An attempt was made to analyze the marketing efficiency of existing channels and factors affecting the marketing efficiency of dairy marketing in the Sirajganj district of Bangladesh. The major goal of this study was to identify different marketing channels and select efficient marketing channel that provide competitive dairy farming in the study area. The conventional method and the shepherd method were used to analyze all the channels for estimating the marketing efficiency of dairy producers. Primary data were collected from 94 commercial dairy producers from major milk shed areas (Sirajganj district). A purposive sampling technique and survey questionnaires were followed to collect data and information from the dairy producers in the research area. The major findings of the study showed that the most prominent marketing channels of dairy in Sirajganj district were- i) Farmers Wholesalers or Goala - Processors Consumers, ii) Farmers Processors/ Mills Consumers, iii) Farmers Wholesalers Consumers. Selling milk to the Goala was found more efficient for the dairy producers, because its share was very high out of the total volume of milk marketed, many consumers were in this channel and marketing cost was also the lowest (TK. 0.23 per liter) for the dairy producers. Factors viz., the quantity of milk sold, and marketing cost of the respondents were found statistically significant affecting marketing efficiency of the dairy producers. The study concluded that Goala and Milk Vita were popular in the area because of guaranteed milk selling and several support services provided to dairy producers.
Key words: Milk marketing, Marketing cost, Marketing efficiency, Price spread
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