An important service that middlemen provide is reducing the number of contacts consumers must make in buying their assortment of goods. The internationalization of foods has been hampered by the fact that it is difficult to move technologies from country to country.
Efficiency measures the ratio of output to input.
The marketing margin is an excellent measure of the efficiency of food marketers. In food marketing, coordination by administered channel has been decreasing relative to coordination by an open-market system. Countervailing power is the power held by major players such as retailers. Cooperative solutions are possible in a zero-sum game. There are differences between consumer needs and consumer wants.