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  • From: "Adriana" <adriana AT chefsgreens.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] SYSCO, greenhouse tomatoes, Grow Bags
  • Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:12:45 -0600


Sounds as though Sysco has hit upon something. Maybe the middle man is not
needed though.

Neal,
I've ben selling to Sysco for 4+ years - one thing that wasn't mentioned in the article was the need for a $2 million product liability insurance policy - not a problem in some states, trickier in others. You need to come across as very businesslike and if you can provide year round production that is even better for them. This year our local Sysco added a group called Grow Alabama to their offerings and it was very well received.

The point about the need to create demand for your product with the end user is absolutely critical unless you're producing a comodity product which already has an established demand . The sales reps for the large wholesalers, especially diversified suppliers like Sysco have about 10,000 products in inventory and they are often reduced to being simply order takers. So you, the grower need to make the contacts with the chefs and introduce them to your stuff. If you can do "ride-withs" with key sales reprresentatives to target restaurants you accomplish two things at once - inform the chef about your products and educate the sales rep at the same time.

Yes, Sysco is the middleman but at some point you need to make a decision on where to best spend your limited time and energy - I could not possibly deliver my product to some of our local Sysco's customers a couple of hundred miles away on the coast...If youwant to do one or two products in volume it might be difficult to get the average direct delivery order large enough to make it worth your while. I did test marketing of culinary herbs, for example and chefs loved my stuff. But with the average order between $30-40 it did not make sense to do direct delivery. The choices were either to expand my product line (and headaches) so that I could deliver more $ per order, or sell through wholesalers. I've come up with a nice compromise for my specialty greens - I participate in all of the food shows that Sysco does which gives me "face time" with the chefs. Then I have the chefs call their orders in to me and I submit it to Sysco. That way the chef gets the satisfaction of working directly with the grower and I get the convenience of having somebody else do the delivery. Very often if I am sold out of something they want I can talk them through the rest of my inventory and they will order something else instead.

Adriana
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Re: greenhouse tomatoes

We tried (as an experiment) growing indeterminate mostly heirlooms in 3
gallon containers in the greenhouse. They were pruned and trellised and
used our left over organic seedling mix. It was an experiment, and the
results were fantastic. Yields were very good, and the tomatoes were
enormous and delicious sometimes over 3lbs.

Michaele ,
How many growing points did you leave on each vine?
Did you drop the vines?
How far apart were your plants?
What time of year di you grow them?
What varieties did best?

Speaking of greenhouse tomatoes, there's an excellent Greenhouse Tomato Short Course put on every year by the University of Mississippi. http://www.msstate.edu/dept/cmrec/ghsc.htm Registration is a steal at only $100 so you may be able to afford some travel and a hotel...

Adriana

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Re: Grow Bags

OK. What's a "grow bag"? And does anyone know what sort of soil mix
is used in is...organically, in particular? -Allan

Grow Bags are made of either UV resistant plastic with drainage holes or out of nylon similar to greenhouse ground cloth... Mary Peet of tniversity of North Carolina has done some excellent research on organic greenhouse tomatoes - http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/greenhouse_veg/topics/organic-production-article.htm.

Adriana





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