Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] selling to restaurants

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: KAKerby AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] selling to restaurants
  • Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:18:29 -0400 (EDT)

Does anyone sell to individual caterers? We don't, but I've often wondered if perhaps that would be a way to "reach" the same chef-type people year after year, even as they jump around between employers.  They would have similar need for absolutely fresh, high quality ingredients, and perhaps be able to pay better for it.  That's just a guess on my part, but catering must be THE most expensive meal on the planet, so let's share that wealth a little, eh?  I'm much too chicken to start such conversations yet, but I'm curious if anyone has attempted that approach, and what the results were.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
 
In a message dated 3/23/2012 9:14:25 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, barkingcatfarm AT mindspring.com writes:

We sell a lot to restaurants and we agree with the previous posters, you can charge nearly retail, especially if the restaurant is small. When pricing does come up, just be open with the chef & ask for feedback on the prices you propose. If he's skittish on pricing, he might not be a good customer, frankly. We've actually been fortunate that some of our better customers will actually tell us when our prices are too low. You can also ask him for a copy of price list that he gets from a distributor, keeping in mind that your prices should be higher for all the reasons everyone else has mentioned. You definitely should be charging more than terminal market wholesale. Restaurants rarely pay that low because distribution is in the chain.

There's a real advantage to selling to restaurants in that it's one big stop and everything you picked is sold. We like that better than Farmers Markets & speculative selling.


Kim
Barking Cat Farm
Texas

On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:34 PM, Carla Maness wrote:

> For those of you who sell to restaurants, what do you charge?  Wholesale? Retail? Do you think it's worth doing?
>
> We've sold our produce at our farmers market for 10 years now, and we've been happy with that. We've recently been approached by a chef who wants to use our produce.

> Right now we're just talking about what we grow, in what quantities and seasonal availability, but I know pricing discussions are coming up.  So far his concern is that we won't have enough produce for what the restaurant uses. I think we can handle that just fine.
>
> I'd love any feedback anyone can offer.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Carla
> Maness Farm
> Perkins, OK

_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Market Farming List Archives may be found here:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/market-farming/
Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email
address and password):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page