Island to Island, Farmer to Chef: Ag Agricultural Marketing Proposal

Island to Island, Farmer to Chef: Ag Agricultural Marketing Proposal

Summary

The Western SARE Pacific Subregional Conference’s top issue was marketing, particularly efforts to penetrate the tourism industry and value added development. So, the University of Guam, Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association (GHRA), the Micronesian Chefs Association (MCA) and the Farmers CO-OP have entered into an MOU and working partnerships to marshal resources for this issue. This project is part of that effort.

Local produce suits chefs’ needs in many ways; fresher, higher quality and conveys an ambiance sought by tourist. Key is education and communication between industries and a new paradigm, “What’s Fresh Now.” Chefs move from seeking year-round availability of a product to using what is available each month.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The six project objectives are:

•Survey the tourism industry’s total monthly demand for each fruit and vegetable grown on the islands.

•Conduct market surveys and farmer interviews on product seasonality by month.

•Develop food processing methods to extend the availability of a few key seasonal products.

•Sponsor regular community building events between farmers and chefs.

•Develop educational products like “What’s Fresh Now” monthly guide.

•Host Farmer/Chef meetings on product standards, market logistics, seasonality and other issues.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Objective 1: Survey the tourism industry’s total monthly demand for each fruit and vegetable grown on the islands.

Conducted a written survey of members of Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association Food and Beverage Group(GHRA Food) and the Micronesian Chef’s association (MCA). While the response rate was low, it provided sufficient data to identify seven locally produced vegetables that can compete with wholesale imports on price alone.

Also utilized the MCA members as a focus group over multiple meetings to identify new marketing channels and to identify strong chef demand for local tropical fruits.

Met with Palau Chefs, one on one, about local fruits currently used and ones which are under-utilized. Also discussed what the chefs would like to see locally grown and what they would be willing to experiment with.

Objective 2: Conduct market surveys and farmer interviews on product seasonality by month.

In Guam we developed both a fruit and vegetable seasonality chart. We have met with MCA and have chefs’ buy-in to make a calendar on monthly market basket of local fruits with chef monthly menu.

In Palau we jointly polled farmers and chefs to identify the most popular fruit, root and vegetable that is in season each month of the year for an initial seasonality calendar.

Objective 3: Develop food processing methods to extend the availability of few key seasonal products.

In Palau we identified key initial target products for value added efforts. These include: calamansi, jackfruit, panama berry soursop, and pickle fruit.

In Guam soursop and calamansi were targets of value added research and demonstration, and workshops have been held on processing frozen soursop puree and on making calamansi marmalade.

Objective 4: Sponsor regular community building events between farmers and chefs.

Through regular meetings with MCA and GHRA, we have worked to focus the three biggest culinary events of the year on local produce. These are Pastries in Paradise, Taste Guam and PHARES.

Objective 5: Develop educational products like “What’s Fresh Now” monthly guide.

In Palau, plans for a annual calendar on the topic of “What’s Fresh Now” have been developed for implementation in the coming year. This includes recipes from local chefs.

In Guam, seasonality charts and posters for both local fruit and vegetables have been produced, and educational programs to the chefs, tourism groups and the general public have been held on these educational tools.

In working with Ken Love, we have identified materials used and developed in Hawaii and used these materials as guides to develop similar materials or directly adapted Hawaii materials for Guam and the Western Pacific.

Objective 6: Sponsor Farmer/Chef meetings on product standards, market logistics, seasonality and other issues.

On Guam, through regular meetings of farmers’ groups and MCA, a new market channel has opened for the first target vegetable, cherry tomatoes. The product moving through this channel has, in one year, gone from 600 pounds a week to 1,200 pounds a week with the current demand being for 2,000 pounds a week and growing. This work was based on the chef and purchasing agent survey. In the coming year we hope to introduce a second vegetable product into this market channel.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We hope to promote sustainable practices and local farmer name recognition as a marketing tool to chefs. Also, we hope to increase farm income, competitiveness and markets for local products through import substitution in the tourism industry. This should improve nutrition by substituting fresher local products for imports. We are seeing increased chef demand for new and under-utilized local crops, thus increasing the islands enterprise diversity. All of this is resulting in economic and social gains from import substitution in the tourism industry.

• Guam Vegetable Seasonality Poster/flyer
• Fruit seasonality poster and flyer
• Draft of Palau Seasonality Calendar

Collaborators: