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  • From: "gutierrez-lagatta" <gutierrez-lagatta AT charter.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Locallly grown produce in national chain accounts
  • Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2002 13:12:02 -0600

Del,
Don't be so quick to dismiss the national chains as heartless,
soulless, impersonal corporations. I supply all of the basil for
Sysco in the state of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Sysco was
receptive to me when I approached them because:
1. My quality was much, much better than what they were flying in
2. I offered to deliver to their warehouse 3 x a week
3. They had been under pressure from local chefs to use local
suppliers
4. I was able to obtain the required $2 million product liability
insurance
> That's the downside to our food distribution system. It is unlikely
that
> the food store chains are going to leave the stocking of their
shelves to
> local producers. KMart, Walmart, Eagle, IGA, Krogers... they just
don't
> work that way.

I had originally assumed that buying decisions for a company like
Sysco were made at the national level, but this turned out to be
wrong. Sysco has a full buying staff locally that I work closely with
to maintain the freshest inventory possible. The keys are finding
products where the quality is low and getting the right people to have
a "conceinse" about the benfits of buying locally. Maybe this is a
project that can be propsed to somebody like the Farm Bureau to
approach national chains. Also, most states have a "Buy State
Products" program. Maybe the people who run it in the dept of
agriculture can be persuaded to do some lobbyig with the national
chains.

Adriana





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