The market channels available to small fruit and vegetable producers are starting to diversify, opening up numerous opportunities; the wholesale market, supply aggregation in cooperatives and producer organizations, contractual agreements with the processing industry and, more recently, direct sales of local products to the large-scale retail system.

This course is meant to supply the participants with an overview on actual potentialities by highlighting both problems and solutions in the ”agricultural supplier – end client” relationship. In particular, this course will emphasize issues concerning the ”agricultural supplier – large-scale retailer” relationship by analysing; the opportunities for the producer to become a supplier to the large-scale retail system, the possible forms of this collaboration and its conditions (quantities, quality and delivery requirements etc.), and some examples taken from the Italian experience.