Agora and Agora Marketplace › … › Price Components · 5 min read
Beyond production, processing, packaging, and logistics, there is another level that is central to pricing: operational support.
This does not concern the individual product at its origin but rather the structures through which products can be collectively organized, distributed, accompanied, and further developed.
This level is particularly important because it makes visible that supply is not just about goods and transport but also about relationships, responsibility, coordination, and infrastructure.
The category "Operational Support" includes contributions that sustain the system in the background.
This includes in particular:
These contributions take effect in different areas but are thematically connected: they ensure the functionality and further development of the network.
This contribution supports the shared basic structure of the marketplace.
It concerns the level at which products, communities, orders, communication, and distribution are brought together in a shared system.
It enables in particular:
The marketplace is not just a technical interface but a shared space for coordination. For this space to remain viable, it requires its own contribution in pricing.
Stewardship describes the accompanying responsibility for the whole.
This refers not only to administration but also to the continuous care and further development of the shared structure.
Without stewardship, the network would eventually become disconnected.
This level ensures that the marketplace not only functions technically but is also maintained and further developed in its internal logic.
Partner locations are places where products are made visible, accessible, and practical for everyday use.
These can be stores, farms, pickup points, or other cooperating locations that share part of the infrastructure and practical distribution.
It supports, for example:
The partner location contribution amounts to 5% of the purchase price (producer price including packaging) of a product. It is received by stores and farms that are also pickup points and distribute products, in addition to the organizer contribution: together 10% of the purchase price, as a credit per distributed box. Example: For an 8 kg box of oranges with a purchase price of €9.52, this amounts to €0.95.
Partner locations make the network tangible. They translate supra-regional logistics into real places of encounter and distribution.
This contribution concerns the people who enable transitions within the network on-site.
This includes organizers of ordering communities, pickup points, or regional structures who support communication, planning, and coordination.
The organizer contribution amounts to 5% of the purchase price (producer price including packaging) of a product. It is included in the price of the harvest share and is credited per distributed box to the organizer. Example: For an 8 kg box of oranges with a purchase price of €9.52, this amounts to €0.48.
Without this work, a delivery would not become community-based supply.
The organizer contribution makes visible that between the product and the member, there is often real relationship and coordination work.
This level concerns the structures that turn mere product availability into an actually usable offering.
The marketplace contribution and the TEIKEI share relate to the provision, presentation, and usability of the offering within the system.
It concerns in particular:
Not every offering is distributed in the same way. Where products are made visible via the Agora Marketplace or a shared offering structure, contributions are needed to support this level.
Not all products go directly from transport to immediate distribution.
Often, intermediate storage, buffer spaces, cooling, inventory organization, and infrastructural preparation are required.
This level is often overlooked but is crucial for the stability of the system.
Especially where products cannot be distributed immediately, real infrastructure costs arise that are part of pricing.
A network that only secures the status quo will eventually become rigid.
The development fund creates space for the system to evolve.
In the TEIKEI context, supply is not just about managing the existing but also about collective learning and building.
The development fund makes visible that future viability is also part of the pricing logic.
Operational support shows that pricing is not only created along the product but also along the relationships and structures that make distribution possible in the first place.
It makes visible:
Without this level, price transparency would be thought too narrowly. Then only the product would be visible, not the system that supports it.
In the TEIKEI context, this category is particularly important because it makes the social, organizational, and infrastructural dimensions of supply visible.
Solidarity-based agriculture and community-supported distribution do not just mean fairly distributing products. They also mean supporting the conditions under which community, coordination, and reliability can emerge in the first place.
Operational support is therefore not a side cost but an expression of shared responsibility.
Once the internal system contributions have become visible, the next level of pricing follows: import and external conditions.
This begins the category "Customs Duties and Import Charges."
↑ One level higher: Price Components
By Felix Schröder, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on March 30, 2026 · Last updated on October 11, 2026
Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us