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  • From: "Rob Wallbridge" <rob AT songberry.ca>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:48:01 -0400

Hi all,

Thanks for the great discussion. To answer your question, Joe, we're still
"specializing" somewhat and supplying the larger buyers with mid-week
deliveries, but we decided to diversify and get back into the farmers'
market for a number of personal and business reasons. I always enjoyed the
direct interaction with people and the "social" aspect of a market. In the
past few years there's been a big increase in the number of well-run
producer-only markets in our area where the prices are consistently higher
than grocery store retail. So when the opportunity arose, we went for it.

Mind you, we were never as specialized as some might interpret the term to
mean. For us, it meant focusing on about 10 main crops, versus 30 for market
(with, as Carla noted, lots of diversity within the crop). So our risk was
still fairly well-spread. With respect to price, our buyers generally put a
50 to 70 percent mark-up on what we supply. So what we sell to them for
$1.00, they retail for $1.49 to $1.69. I appreciate having a mid-week market
for crops that need frequent harvest without having to invest the time in
attending another farmers' market (we have tried mid-week markets, too, but
they never seemed to generate enough traffic). Guaranteed sales (harvesting
to order) is another nice aspect of this model.

Cheers,
Rob

Rob Wallbridge
Songberry Organic Farm
24 Sixth Line, Bristol, QC J0X 1G0
rob AT songberry.ca
www.songberry.ca
facebook: "Songberry Organic Farm"
twitter: @songberryfarm


-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thamnophis
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 12:23 AM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization

Thanks Rob, I'm trying to gauge market trends and opportunities - a
risky undertaking I know :-)

But I see a marked increase in demand that we highly diversified
growers can't meet, especially at the price point the bigger markets
tend to pay - maybe half of retail.

Meeting that demand would entail costs: irrigation, a truck, renting
some equipment to lay plastic, etc. And, as you said, there are risks
to putting all your eggs in one basket. A storm like the one we had
last week with 100mph strait-line winds would wipe a guy out in a
couple minutes.

Question: Why are you back to farmers markets - what didn't work as
well as you hoped when specializing a bit?

Joe
Boone County, IA

On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 10:06 PM, Rob Wallbridge <rob AT songberry.ca> wrote:
> Hi Joe,
>
> Great question - I'm surprised there haven't been more responses. It's a
> balancing act I'm continually playing with here on our farm. I started off
> doing the full variety, but as other demands on my time increased and
other
> factors came into play, I backed away from the CSA and farmers' market
model
> and focused more on supplying stores and box programs (and a few
> restaurants) with a smaller variety of produce. In the past two years, I'm
> back into the farmers' market game and have been increasing my variety in
> response. So here are my observations:
>
> - diversification spreads risk but it also increases management
> requirements; you still need to prioritize taking care of your "staple"
> crops and let less significant ones fall by the wayside if you must
> - all buyers (stores and individuals) appreciate the concept of "one-stop
> shopping" for as many of their needs as possible; you may lose a
commercial
> account to a competitor if they can deliver more variety than you can on a
> consistent basis
> - the efficiency gains in specialization vary a lot from crop to crop and
> for certain crops, you'd need to scale up in a huge way to compete on
price
> with the really big players
> - transportation and marketing take up big chunks of time that too often
go
> unrecognized by growers; spreading these costs over a number of crops at
any
> given time is a bonus
> - knowing your cost of production on a per-crop basis (even if it's just a
> rudimentary calculation) is key to knowing what to grow more of or less of
>
> Hope this gets the ball rolling a bit more!
>
> Cheers,
> Rob
>
> Rob Wallbridge
> Songberry Organic Farm
> 24 Sixth Line, Bristol, QC J0X 1G0
> rob AT songberry.ca
> www.songberry.ca
> facebook: "Songberry Organic Farm"
> twitter: @songberryfarm
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Thamnophis
> Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:58 PM
> To: Market Farming
> Subject: [Market-farming] Business models: Market specialization
>
> Hello all -
>
> I'm interested in your thoughts about the benefits of specialization
> VS the more common generalized market farming business model. It seems
> the most common business model I see is a farmer trying to produce
> many crops over the course of the year, thereby taking full advantage
> of their space and the time available in a growing season.
>
> There are obvious inefficiencies in this model, but depending on your
> target audience, may still be the most profitable over all.
>
> But I'm seeing an expanding market - institutional buyers, grocery
> stores, etc. So it seems that specializing in a few crops may produce
> an advantage over your competition. Specialization would (maybe) allow
> me to sell at a lower price point and still make a profit.
>
> So my question: Are you weighing the costs/benefits of specialization
> and if so what conclusions have your musing (or even research) led to?
>
> Joe
> Boone County, IA
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