2000 Annual Report for FS00-128
Direct Marketing Opportunities to Improve Economic Outlook
Summary
One of the major problems facing small to moderate scale farmers, particularly those diversifying into alternative crops, is the availability of markets. They often face a Catch-22 situation. In order to secure a market, they need to have quality, quantity, and consistency of production. However, before most farmers will invest in new forms of production or producing quantity, they want a secure market.
Direct marketing opportunities for farmers can help to improve their economic outlook. This SARE Producer Grant project will attempt to form a farmer group and connect it with institutional food markets such as hospitals, schools, or senior centers. The scale to which products could be sold to these institutions is at a level that is larger than most small growers can produce individually but not too large for them to do it as a group. The end result is to have a network of farmers producing goods from all the food groups: meat-beef, poultry, pork, lamb; dairy-milk and cheese; eggs; fresh fruit; and vegetables, and value added products.
The group will work to develop a marketing flyer, price listing and set up an office (location on existing farm site) to handle order taking, business operations, and transportation logistics. The farming group will focus on their strengths. The key to selling these products is through focus on the quality of locally grown and fresh food. With great attention being paid to production, consistent quality can be maintained.
Competition must be based on quality, freshness and taste. The cost of the product needs to reflect these points and be explained to the customer. Competing on price with huge distributors is not a viable option. The flyer will talk about the benefits of purchasing local produce such as freshness and quality. In supporting local farmers, the community becomes a little more sustainable, cross country transportation is reduced and the local economy improves.