Market Research for Market Readiness: upcycling pork organ meat into pet treats and pork fat into salve

View the project final report

Commodities

• Animals: swine

Practices

• Farm Business Management: market study, new enterprise development, value added

Value-added farmers need to evaluate the products they are developing for market. Professional testing can be cost prohibitive for first generation family farm businesses.

The Market Research for Market Readiness Protocol is designed to help entrepreneurial food makers and value-added farmers evaluate the products they are developing for market.  Self-executed consumer testing will cost substantially less than contracting professional testing.  

Alluvial Farms evaluated our current and target market customer’s acceptance of the formulation, concept, packaging, pricing, and market channel strategy for our existing Oinkment and Pet Treat products. After this evaluation, results were used in product formulation, labeling, and market channel positioning to realize a 81% increase in total gross value-added revenue from 2023 to 2025.

Market Research for Market Readiness materials were created and distributed by Catherine Durham at the Oregon State University Food Innovation Center. The manual describes a set of procedures to conduct and report on a consumer test. The workbook produces all of the figures and tables that can be incorporated in a sales pitch, business plan, or feasibility study.

The self-executed consumer testing protocol helped Alluvial Farms and other farmers to:

• Evaluate the sensory qualities for our products;
• Investigate how much consumers will pay;
• Get new marketing ideas;
• Demonstrate market readiness to retailers and investors.

We documented our use of these tools, and others, as a case study and hope that the results increase interest amongst family scale farms of these free tools by illustrating how market testing can increase revenue.

In the final year of our project we created a webinar presentation featuring our work business and value-added products, and the corresponding findings. This was presented at a webinar via the California Small Farm Conference (Feb. 22-27, 2026). 

Research Objectives - year one

Alluvial Farms explored the use of  Market Research for Market Readiness set of tools created by Catherine Durham, professor of Applied Agricultural Economics at Oregon State University. These tools were originally developed to help Alluvial:                    

1. Conduct consumer testing to determine the acceptance and potential of two products made from upcycled by-products of our farrow to finish pork enterprise: pet treats made from pork organ meat and skin care made with lard.
2. Better understand consumer acceptance of:

• Our two product lines overall,
• Attributes within our product concepts,
• Attributes of our packaging and product labels.

3. Examine the market potential for our two product lines by studying consumer purchase intent and price acceptance.
4. Evaluate and utilize our testing results in our product formulation, labeling, and market channel positioning in order to realize a 685% increase in total gross value-added revenue from 2023 to 2025.

Annual gross revenue projections by enterprise:

Educational Objectives - year two (April 2025-April 2026)

1. Co-create a webinar featuring our case study and the Market Research for Market Readiness Manual, in partnership with the tool’s creator Catherine "Cathy" Durham, professor of Applied Economics at the Food Innovation Center at Oregon State University.
2. Present the webinar to farmers through at least three host agencies online channels, reaching a total of at least 200 small family farms.