Los canales y márgenes de comercialización de la leche cruda producida en sistema familiar (estudio de caso)

a field study was carried out to identify marketing channels and margins of "raw milk" (milk that is marketed without any physical or chemical treatment) produced in a community of maravatio municipality, in michoacan state, in the west-central portion of mexico. the research method had a first recognition phase with acceptance of the work group by the community. direct observation was carried out and visits were made with milk gatherers who filled out a questionnaire to record traded milk in liters, and to estimate their marketing costs and their gross marketing margin (gmm), net marketing margin (nmm) and producer direct participation (pdp). information that was captured and processed permitted the identification of five gatherers, of which only two sell "raw milk" directly, the other three transform and market it as dairy products. results show existence of two types of marketing channels, one is zero level or direct marketing channel and the other is of only one level. estimated margins for the gatherers that market "raw milk" on average are: gmm, 31.7%; pdp, 68.3%; and nmm, considering the cost of opportunity of labor, would be 20.1 %, while without taking it into consideration it would be 25.7%. margins indicate that the activity of gatherer is revenue-yielding and it gives an economic incentive to continue with that activity, especially if the gatherer does not have a better cost of opportunity for labor. the above is not applicable to the producer, since he must consider his production costs.