Summary
The economic situation across the country for small farms requires that the owners be constantly on the lookout for what they can do just to keep up. Small farms feel increased pressure and competition much more than larger farms do and these constraints have made them in general more hesitant to try something like value added because they see that there is risk involved and that it creates a delay in cash flow.
In summer 2006, Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia in partnership with the South Central Penn State Extension Service Office submitted a SARE Sustainable Community proposal and despite the multiple challenges for a small farm in trying a new venture, nine farmers (six in West Virginia and three in Pennsylvania) expressed an interest not only in learning about value-added but also in trying it on for size because as a part of this grant they could minimize the risk, the financial outlay, and get some solid assistance with marketing.
This SARE initiative provided the opportunity for these farmers to become working partners with SARE and in this way to develop the sweat equity needed to finance their value added processing. The learnings from their efforts then became a model for others to benefit from.
Introduction
This proposal incorporated a systems approach to these farmers value added products, because it took into account that as important as it is to get some help with the production costs, without assistance in marketing their products, these farmers would not be much better off. The particular power of this proposal we believe, is that it used as consultants culinary experts to pre-test before production the product concept and employed their connections to expand the demand side.
As a result of this initiative nine partner-farmers after consulting with our team of chefs as to potential “hot ticket” items that they might make as value added products, then planted, grew, harvested the requisite farm product, had it processed, learned about branding and marketing, marketed and sold the product. Some were highly successful in terms of taking product that had no longer had any commercial value and would have been thrown away and turned it into cash. Others took product that could have been sold as a commodity and (after processing) earned a higher (to significantly higher) net dividend for their efforts.
Initiative Objectives
· To clarify for farmers both the financial risks and advantages of value added.
· To provide information and coaching about growing and processing for value added, as well as e-commerce and financing, marketing and branding.
· To create a cadre of working partner farmers who try value added.
· To assist farmers in connecting with the resources needed to make it happen which include—the processing plant and risk capital.
· To track the efforts of this group of farmers and capture the lessons learned.
· To have that same group of farmers share their learnings with others in the agricultural community.
· To assist farmers to find and/or create a market—especially for larger order demand.
Lessons Learned
- Offering free samples is a most effective marketing technique and so is and providing the customers with recipes.
- Having a recipe from a well-known chef on the package added even more value.
- Consumers love a story. One farmer shared with customers that they were using their great grandmother’s recipe. Another shared the story about how the heritage seeds for their product had been handed down for 7 generations. These stories made people interested and eager to buy.
- Consumers love history—for example, having corn stone-ground at historic (Stonewall Jackson) mill added even more value to the product.
- Value-added products are crucial to extend their season.
- Farmers’ Markets and Festivals were a very effective marketing tool. At these events when samples are given, sales are higher.
- It is necessary to “Market, market, market.” One farm marketed their Value Added products on their own website, on localharvest.com, on WVFarm2U.org, and also displayed them in a coffeehouse, indoor market, and local Civil War Museum’s Visitors Center.
- Pricing is very important and producers may misgauge the best price for a product the first year out.
- Finding the right product and predicting what consumers will buy requires one to “think outside the box.”
- There is a need for strong communications when setting up the processing schedules so that product doesn’t go bad before it can be processed.
- Producing value added products requires that there be someone to oversee it—“otherwise it gets pushed to the side and there is not sufficient communication with the processing plant”
- Some items—applesauce, salsa as examples—seem to be a “commodity” item meaning that it is very difficult to demonstrate to the public that any variation of such a product is worth a gourmet price.
The economic situation across the country for small farms requires that the owners be constantly on the lookout for what they can do just to keep up. Small farms feel increased pressure and competition much more than larger farms do and these constraints have made them in general more hesitant to try something like value added because they see that there is risk involved and that it creates a delay in cash flow.
In summer 2006, Collaborative for the 21st Century Appalachia in partnership with the South Central Penn State Extension Service Office submitted a SARE Sustainable Community proposal and despite the multiple challenges for a small farm in trying a new venture, nine farmers (six in West Virginia and three in Pennsylvania) expressed an interest not only in learning about value-added but also in trying it on for size because as a part of this grant they could minimize the risk, the financial outlay, and get some solid assistance with marketing.
This SARE initiative provided the opportunity for these farmers to become working partners with SARE and in this way to develop the sweat equity needed to finance their value added processing. The learnings from their efforts then became a model for others to benefit from.
Introduction
This proposal incorporated a systems approach to these farmers value added products, because it took into account that as important as it is to get some help with the production costs, without assistance in marketing their products, these farmers would not be much better off. The particular power of this proposal we believe, is that it used as consultants culinary experts to pre-test before production the product concept and employed their connections to expand the demand side.
As a result of this initiative nine partner-farmers after consulting with our team of chefs as to potential “hot ticket” items that they might make as value added products, then planted, grew, harvested the requisite farm product, had it processed, learned about branding and marketing, marketed and sold the product. Some were highly successful in terms of taking product that had no longer had any commercial value and would have been thrown away and turned it into cash. Others took product that could have been sold as a commodity and (after processing) earned a higher (to significantly higher) net dividend for their efforts.
Initiative Objectives
· To clarify for farmers both the financial risks and advantages of value added.
· To provide information and coaching about growing and processing for value added, as well as e-commerce and financing, marketing and branding.
· To create a cadre of working partner farmers who try value added.
· To assist farmers in connecting with the resources needed to make it happen which include—the processing plant and risk capital.
· To track the efforts of this group of farmers and capture the lessons learned.
· To have that same group of farmers share their learnings with others in the agricultural community.
· To assist farmers to find and/or create a market—especially for larger order demand.
Lessons Learned
- Offering free samples is a most effective marketing technique and so is and providing the customers with recipes.
- Having a recipe from a well-known chef on the package added even more value.
- Consumers love a story. One farmer shared with customers that they were using their great grandmother’s recipe. Another shared the story about how the heritage seeds for their product had been handed down for 7 generations. These stories made people interested and eager to buy.
- Consumers love history—for example, having corn stone-ground at historic (Stonewall Jackson) mill added even more value to the product.
- Value-added products are crucial to extend their season.
- Farmers’ Markets and Festivals were a very effective marketing tool. At these events when samples are given, sales are higher.
- It is necessary to “Market, market, market.” One farm marketed their Value Added products on their own website, on localharvest.com, on WVFarm2U.org, and also displayed them in a coffeehouse, indoor market, and local Civil War Museum’s Visitors Center.
- Pricing is very important and producers may misgauge the best price for a product the first year out.
- Finding the right product and predicting what consumers will buy requires one to “think outside the box.”
- There is a need for strong communications when setting up the processing schedules so that product doesn’t go bad before it can be processed.
- Producing value added products requires that there be someone to oversee it—“otherwise it gets pushed to the side and there is not sufficient communication with the processing plant”
- Some items—applesauce, salsa as examples—seem to be a “commodity” item meaning that it is very difficult to demonstrate to the public that any variation of such a product is worth a gourmet price.
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