Food and Agribusiness Marketing and Management major
Major in food and agribusiness marketing and management at UD: youtube.com/watch?v=S8hwTtzHiZo
Food and Agribusiness Marketing and Management applies marketing, management, sales and business concepts to the food and fiber industry. Students gain sound business training across two University of Delaware colleges. We begin with basic business principles, accounting and marketing coursework and then focus of food marketing, human resource management, strategic selling and buyer communication, economics of biotechnology, international trade, management of a new business, food retailing and buyer behavior. You will explore the food market system from the farm to consumer and learn to market food commodities from cereal and produce to Perdue chicken. We also make sure you are confident working with data, performing statistical analysis, understanding consumer experiments and developing surveys.
Why major in Food and Agribusiness Marketing and Management?
Food and fiber industries constitute approximately 16 percent of the U.S. economy with a value of over $2.5 trillion and 20 million jobs. The production of food is only a small part of this total, with most of the effort, resources and jobs involved in creating and marketing products to consumers. Our major focuses on the unique aspects of these industries, including food marketing, management and leadership, and entrepreneurship. Not only will you obtain a strong background in business principles, but you will also graduate with the knowledge of how the agribusiness sector operates and impacts domestic and world economies. The job market is hungry for students well trained in business, but who also understand the unique nature and dynamics of the food and fiber industry. In fact, agricultural economics related majors rank second in employability among all college majors, according to USA Today.
For more information, visit the UD Online Catalog.
Career paths
- Produce and Food Brokering
- Investment Brokering
- Food Marketing
- Food Sales
- Agricultural Chemical Sales
- Pharmaceutical and Veterinary Medicine Sales
- Market Analyst
Graduate school paths
- Economics
- Resource Economics
- Marketing
- Law
- Agribusiness Finance
- International Marketing
- Business Administration
This sample shows just one possible pathway to earning a bachelor of science degree in Food and Agribusinesss Marketing and Management in four years. This plan does not replace the advice of your advisor.
Course highlights
This course engages students in learning and critical thinking about a variety of pressing issues, such as natural resource management, environmental protection, and poverty alleviation in a regional, national, and international context. Instructors integrate natural science, economics, ethics, and policy to improve the wellbeing of people and the environment. Instructors encourage students to think critically about these issues by applying basic policy and economic analysis, considering the ethical dimensions of policy, and assessing indicators of environmental quality and human welfare. Students tackle projects related to sustainability, resilience, and climate change.
This course provides a foundation of retailing management and strategy, which inherently involves exploring consumer behavior. Instructors cover the many facets of the food value chain to broadly understand challenges and opportunities of retailing food products. Additionally, students discuss the factors and behavioral responses that affect food choice. Students learn and apply basic concepts and key terms and complexities and strategies of retail management. Students learn to create a retail strategy and evaluate the dynamics of maintaining a value proposition to remain competitive in the marketplace.
Instructors introduce the economic explanations for new technologies and the way economists view innovation and adoption of new products and techniques. The course moves on to a description of biotechnology and issues from consumer acceptance to government regulations to trade. Students explore risk assessment, intellectual property rights and differences in developing countries. Along the way, other technologies with the potential for significant impacts on agribusiness or beyond are discussed.
Students develop marketing plans, pitching the plan in local and national competitions. The primary objective is to prepare for the student competition at the National Agri-Marketing Association Conference. Students enrolled develop product ideas, implement marketing and advertising techniques, and evaluate financial requirements for an innovative food and agribusiness product or service. Students will work as a team to design a marketing campaign and compose the executive summary of a written marketing plan.
Instructors cover the necessary steps on how to start a food and agribusiness venture. Students write and present a business plan to industry professionals to mimic a real-world experience. The plan incorporates the subject matter learned in previous FABM coursework, so students can apply the knowledge gained in those courses in a practical academic business endeavor.
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