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  • From: Etienne Goyer <etienne.goyer AT outlands.ca>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Can't Sell My Produce
  • Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:38:32 -0400

I absolutely agree with Antoine. However, I am betting I can make it
work in a very rural area.

For background, I live in the Gaspé penisula, about three hours drive
from the closest town with 20K+ population. The area is considered
economically depressed (although things are improving). The population
is rather diverse, but the old-root gaspesian has on average lower
education and lower income than the province average, and a
meat-and-potato food culture. Again, this is not representative of
*everyone*, as we have every kind of people around here, but still. I
would add there's barely any "ethnic" around (sorry if that sounds
offensive, I couldn't find a better word), but otherwise there's a fair
influx of people moving in from other part of the province, among them a
small number of "arsty" and intellectuals. There's also a trend with
newly retired people moving back; often time, these people are
relatively well-off.

In a 30km (about 20 miles) radius from my farm, the population is 10k
people. If you expand just a little farther, you've got two more town
of about 5k population each.

Equiterre, a Québec environmental advocacy group which pioneered the CSA
concept in the province, has a market study that defines a number of
profiles of potential CSA partners (professionals with young family,
retired professionals, etc). According to their numbers and
socio-demographic data from other source, I figured there's about 5% of
the population likely that fits these profiles. 500 people is a very
small market indeed, but if I can turn in a fair share of these, I can
probably run a CSA worth the effort (I am hoping for 100 shares in 4-5
years).

What I am finding out, though, is that the old-root people, especially
those over 60, are actually good business. Lots of people around here
where raised on subsistance farms. There's a nostalgia of time past and
big gardens and fresh produce. They may have spent their life eating
potatoes with every meal, but they remember the beans and cabbages their
mom used to grow. There is no market with these people for kale and bok
choi, but you can certainly sell them beans, peas, radish, sweet corn,
new potatoes and other traditional crop vegetables. I am finding out
the farmer market is a good place to talk to these people, and boy do
they love to! I am hoping I could even convert some of these people to
CSA members eventually. We'll see!

Mark, being in a my first season and still wet behind the ears, I cannot
really give you any advice, but if there's one thing I would look out
for, it's your salesmenship. I found out my wife and myself are pretty
good at selling at market, and I am sure that helps. Not everyone has
it, so if you don't, you might consider partnering with someone who's
good at selling. Just my 0.02$.

Of course, I am all fresh and naive and optimistic, but let the story
unfold! We'll see how it pans out in a few years.

Etienne

blog: http://lejardinduvillage.wordpress.com


On 11-07-11 07:06 AM, Antoine Gendreau Turmel wrote:
> Most of the successful CSA farms I know are located near a big city
> where they deliver their produce to an eager consumer base of educated
> and slightly-higher-than average-income folks. For a CSA project, being
> near a big city is important to have a sufficiently big consumer base.
>
>
>
> Antoine G Turmel
>
> Ferme de la Coulée Douce
> St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Québec
> www.FermeDeLaCouleeDouce.com
>
> 250 members CSA farm, located 15 miles from Quebec city.
>
> Le 10/07/11 10:58, « TxBeeFarmer » <txbeefarmer AT gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> *I’ve been growing produce for more than 10 years now. I have tried
> Farmers’ Markets, CSA, direct sales, pick your own, share farming,
> and anything else you can think of. I just can’t sell the stuff.
> Bottom line..., they buy theirs at the grocery store, Wally World
> where they can get all of their food at one place, or from food
> distributers. They all look at two things – price and convenience.
> Oh sure, I can sell SOME at the Farmers’ Market and SOME via CSA,
> and SOME direct sale. But at that rate, I can’t make enough to make
> it worth my time, effort, and money. People around here don’t give
> a flip about organic, local, or quality. It’s all price and
> convenience. AND, I haven’t even mentioned the cost and paperwork
> nightmare of hiring people. I can’t figure out the employee taxes
> at all!!! And I’ve tried my best too.
> *
> *I just don’t see how the people in this group do it!!!
> *
> *Mark
> West Texas
> *
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