Peculiarities of agricultural products (20)

Agricultural products have peculiarities that go beyond their plant or animal origin.

These peculiarities distinguish them from other species of products and affect their production costs and sales prices.

Among these characteristics stands the essentiality, seasonality, dependence on natural events, the incidence of commodities, degradation and perishability, sanitary and environmental requirements, unique raw materials, and elongated production cycles, as commented below.

Essentiality
A vast number of products of agricultural origin are essential to human subsistence because they meet the needs of food, shelter, clothing, and energy.

Seasonality
Much of the production and supply of agricultural products is seasonal, as they depend on each species’ biological cycle.

Dependence on natural events
Agricultural products are highly dependent on natural events, whether climatic, geophysical, or biological.

Incidence of commodities
Another characteristic of agricultural products is that they are, in a large proportion, commodities (a commodity is a marketable good, standardized, storable, usually of low added value and traded in large quantities).

Degradation and perishability
Most products of plant and animal origin are highly degradable and perishable because they are composed of living raw materials.

Sanitary and environmental requirements
As they may present nonconformities or inadequacies that are harmful to human, animal, and plant health and the environment quality—deformities, infestations, contaminations, pathologies, deterioration, strange or pollutants elements, and food additives noxious to health—agricultural products are controlled by strict standards physical, chemical, biological, visual and environmental.

Unique raw materials
Many agricultural products derive from a single raw material, as happens with products of mineral origin, of which petroleum derivatives are the most emblematic example. For instance, it is possible to extract about 120 products from sugar cane.

Elongated production cycles
Agricultural and cattle-raising activities often have uninterrupted production cycles longer than in other areas. That is the case for rice cultivation, which averages 130 days; broiler chicken production from incubated eggs, averaging 67 days; and eucalyptus cultivation for cellulose, averaging seven years.

C. L. Eckhard, author of Pricing in Agribusiness: setting and managing prices for better sales margins.