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  • From: "MAsteveINE" <MAsteveINE AT 207me.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] (no subject)
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:34:01 -0400

Much appreciated, many thanks; would someone PLEASE see that it
gets a subject before it goes to archives.
 
MAsteveINE
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 10:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] (no subject)

We supply small upscale delis and markets and Whole Foods Market.  We have found that everyone is different be it insurance requirements or how the produce or grains are packaged.  We have found that a company like WFM is really pushing to get local foods in their stores and seem have told each store manager to do what it takes.   

We are only selling dried goods and honey to WFM currently but will be expanding into green onions and radishes this spring.  They seem very eager.  I'll say the the smaller guys are easier to deal with usually, but this not always the case.

We currently sell honey to Biggs/Remke but that will probably be all we ever do with them.

I think that is about as far as we can go without paying the cost to get certified by the OPGMA group, which is pretty much the same thing as the California Leafy Greens Agreement.  The cost is absurd unless you are selling off farm or at a farmers market.  Most of Ohio's larger retail chains are all joining.

Each business has its own requirements and each business MAY work with you to better deal with a local supplier.  

None of which helps all that much because its all vague.  What I think is more important is that your product is better than what they are selling when you contact them.

Some things to think about if you go this route:
Clean Packing shed
You need cool storage
You need a delivery vehicle (not your car or open bed pick-up...though starting out that way is NOT the end of the world for the smaller businesses).
You need to research in store pricing (go in and take photos and weigh things, take notes).
Focus on one or two items and do them flawlessly.  Then worry about more.
Good insurance.
Be ready for paperwork and a long period of time to get into the flow (it took over four months to get the first PO generated at WFM)
Make sure you can grow a lot of one or two things consistently (for these customers...I am not suggesting you go mono-crop...we grow 32 items, many of them herbs, but we grow a lot of three items because everyone wants them...besides who wants to be ANOTHER heirloom tomato grower).
Know what it costs you to plant, grow, and harvest that item (if you do not know and you start working with margins with the retailer you will loose).
Be transparent and assume that initially the customer needs help in relearning an old way of buying and selling local food

I will also add that if you are STILL running a farm and considering this AND your farm is still a sole proprietor and NOT an LLC separate from your home then you you need to stop and rethink what you are doing.  You are opening yourself up to a whole new level of liability and the chances of getting the required insurance at an affordable price becomes much more difficult (if not impossible in many cases).  Its cheap to do and things like passing the farm onto family also becomes MUCH easier...which is an entirely different subject.  :)

If you have questions ask away, with an understanding that I am still very much new comer to all of this still.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106


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