Direct Marketing Assessment for the Potential of Ethnic Crops

Direct Marketing Assessment for the Potential of Ethnic Crops

Summary

Overview of Grant Project:
A small federal grant was received from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program to explore the potential to develop a niche market for small farmers serving the Arlington County area. There are two primary tasks:
1) To investigate the viability of growing certain ethnic vegetables in this region; and
2) To generate interest in and assess the demand for ethnic vegetables.

Farmers Involved:
Chip Planck, Wheatland Vegetable Farms, participating at Columbia Pike/Arlington Markets
Haroun Hallack, Red Bud Farm, participating at Columbia Pike Market
Peter Perkins, Red Rake Farm, participating at Arlington Market

Farmers’ Markets Involved:
Columbia Pike, Sundays 10 am – 2 pm, Pike Park (off of Walter Reed Drive)
Arlington, Saturdays 8 am – noon, adjacent to Arlington County Courthouse

Key Project Contacts:
Academic Collaborators:
Jason Murray, Loudoun VA Cooperative Extension Commercial Horticulturist
Tom Tyler, Arlington VA Cooperative Extension Environmental Horticulturist

Outreach Collaborator:
Kelly Luck, Oakton, VA
703-242-2195, kellyluckconsulting@yahoo.com

Examples of Products to be Featured:
The crop list is in the process of being finalized, but below are some examples of products that will likely be available from July into the fall:
Herbs (such as Mexican Sage, Siam Queen Thai Basil, and Greek Marjoram)
Varieties of Asian Greens
Varieties of Cucumbers (Mideastern, Oriental, and Armenian)
Hot Peppers (Habaneros, Thai Dragons, and Jalapenos)
Tomatillos
Episote, often used with bean dishes (helps prevent gas)
Amaranth, widely cultivated in West Africa for its edible greens
Okra, often used in soups, stews, and stir fries or as a fried or boiled vegetable
Middle Eastern Squash
Bitter Melons
Feedback on Reaching Out to Community:
How can we raise awareness in the community? — Community meetings? Church groups? Community centers? Nutritional programs? Local cable programs? Newspapers tailored to different ethnic groups? Local events? Flyers? Other?

On Farm Initiatives

Completed:
Finalized List of Crops Produced by each farmer collaborator
Initial Collection of data: seeding dates and rates
Determined approximate harvest periods for each crop (for market promotion)

Current:
Planning of dates for Farm Tours and Outreach

Summer:
Collection of harvest data: yields, harvest period, sales quantity and revenue
Development of Fact Sheets for crops produced
Farm tours late July or early August
Visit farmers as well as Maryland Research Plots
Travel for Bratsch and Tubene and Myers included

Marketing Initiatives and Assessment

Two markets have been selected as the focus of this project: Arlington and Columbia Pike. Arlington market is managed by Collaborator Tom Tyler and represents an “Up-scale” marketplace. Columbia Pike market represents a market in a community with high ethnic demographics. The two markets promotional approaches will cater to their respective strengths, and assess the potential for direct marketing sales in the various settings.

Tom Tyler is currently conducting “focus groups” in the community surrounding the Columbia Pike market, to assess the specific crops in demand. This will facilitate introduction of new crops by the farmers, in an attempt to meet the demand of the community.

Kelly Luck of Kelly Luck Consulting has taken a role in association with Tom Tyler and Jason Murray to do much of the outreach promotional work in the community. Initial feedback to Tom Tyler indicated that the greatest impact in attempting to bring the ethnic community into the markets is human interaction. Kelly will be responsible for engaging community groups and community leaders on a timely basis to promote the Columbia Pike Market as carrying products of interest to them. She will engage the community with knowledge of the crops available, the existing shuttle infrastructure in the area to get citizens to the market, and identification of the specific vendors within the market. Kelly will further work with volunteers to survey attendees of the markets as to what additional products they may be interest in, and the expected cost of those products to consumers.

The Arlington Market initiative will attempt to lead existing market attendees to try crops that may be new to them, while the initiative for Columbia Pike is to draw the community into the marketplace. Arlington will thus use samples of prepared dishes and recipe sheets as a catalyst to product sales. Again surveys will be conducted to assess further interest and expectations of the community.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The final report will comprehensively identify all the marketing strategies utilized, and the overall economics of these crops for the participating farmers. The production data will summarize seeding dates and rates, cost of production, total yield, sales quantities, sales prices, and final economic impact for the farmers.

The report will identify the results of “focus groups” assessments on demands, identified demands of consumers from surveys at the marketplace, and all activities of outreach and promotion.

Additionally, project results will be written into an article for newspaper release, and also presented at vegetable grower meetings to identify the potential of producing ethnic crops for markets.

Collaborators: