Market structure and marketing practice of the Libyan food manufacturing industry

The basis of this study is an examination of the. market structure and marketing practices of the'Libyan food manufac- turing industry. Although marketing literature about this part of the world is almost non-existent, the researcher nude a considerable effort to obtain relevant information from various sources available in order to form a comprehensive background against which marketing practices of different marketing in- stitutions could be analysed. Certain environmental factors were examined and proved to have major influence in shaping the structure of the Libyan . market. Consequently, marketing practices differed from one sub-market to another, i. e. it was found that the physical structure of the country divided the national market into rela- tively small sub-markets which in turn favoured an industrial structure consisting of small units. Accordingly, the levels of production operations of the Libyan food manufacturers are relatively low and their related marketing practices are less than sophisticated. Despite the fact that Libya became one of the major oil producing countries as from the early 1960s, it was found that the availability of capital is not a single answer to the question of rapid economic and social development. Other factors such as lack of managerial talents, high illiteracy rates, low levels of technological know-how, along with other factors within the socio-psychological set-up of the country, proved to be decisive factors frustrating rapid industrialisation. It was concluded that certain marketing conditions have to be created, some of which within firms and others within the marketing environment. Without such improvements, -the Libyan food manufacturers are heading towards a situation where the marketing sector of the economy will be out of phase with in- dustrialisation.