Selling to Stores
Selling to Stores
Setting up a cooperating arrangement of regional farmers to supply a local food co-operative or grocery store.
by Anne Schwartz of Rockport, WA
A number of years ago, Patrice Barrentine, while serving as Produce Manager for the Olympia Food Cooperative, participated in a series of day long meetings with Direct Marketing workshops for farmers held in different regions of the state. Up to that point, our local Skagit Valley Food Co-op (www.SkagitFoodCoop.com) had been purchasing produce from regional growers, but not in any coordinated manner. After her presentation, while we were discussing the details of how to make such a program work, we invited her to come to our local co-op and have a meeting with our Producer Manager to share ideas, systems and challenges. This led to a couple of planning meetings that first year, and got us going on this great relationship. It now requires one annual planning meeting with the farmers, produce manager and staff to figure out the details.
There are some immediate benefits from working with a local cooperative. Generally, the co-op mission and philosophy includes supporting local businesses and organic produce and products; and that paves the way for everything that follows.
In order to have a planned, equitable, local purchasing program between farmers and co-ops or local grocery stores, both farmers and buyers have to make it work. One of the ways to get a local buying program going is for the co-op to host a meeting with all interested farmers in the winter. A winter meeting benefits the farmers whose market season is slowing down or finished before seed buying for the season takes place. However, winter is the busiest time of year for food retailers as many farmers markets, CSAs and farm stands close for the season and holidays approach.
Responsibilities for the Co-op or Grocery Produce Manager:
1. Prior to the meeting, the PRODUCE MANAGER will need to: identify regional growers to supply produce, and identify meeting times and a place to come together to get the conversation going.
At the initial meeting, other resources and growers can be identified. Tilth Producers Biannual Directory has been very useful to identify growers in our watershed and for other crops that are grown in-state, but outside the immediate local region. For example, soft fruit and reliable quantities of apples and pears can more easily be grown in the central and eastern parts of the state. Several family farms now regularly deliver these fruits directly to the co-op rather than going thru a wholesale distributor.
2. Also prior to the meeting, The PRODUCE MANAGER needs to: create a detailed list of fruits and vegetables by variety that the co-op desires with quantities and schedule of produce purchased weekly by the co-op for planning purposes by the growers.
At our meeting, the growers generally offer what they want to grow and work out with the PRODUCE MANAGER who will serve as the 1 or 2 main growers with an additional 1-3 in line as back up growers, depending on the crop. Though not perfect, this has generally worked well for the co-op and the growers. It assures that the co-op has a more continuous supply, and that a failure on one farm will not mean that no local product is available. It works well, at least more fairly, if the PRODUCE MANAGER alternates between the main growers so that each has an opportunity to move product. In many situations larger growers also have the opportunity to move extra quantities through their wholesale distributors and that can help alleviate the temporary surplus. The growers can also agree to reduce the price to move product more quickly.
3. At the meeting, the PRODUCE MANAGER should also: provide some general guidelines for pricing for each crop over the course of the season, as well as special advertised sales planned during the growing season. The grower needs to know, in general terms, what to expect for pricing. It is assumed that the co-op will pay at least what the wholesale distributor is charging. It turns out that most of the local growers want to be paid more than the cheapest price that wholesale distributors offer, at least for some of their crops, some of the time. For the smaller growers, that may be more critical or relevant, more often. The larger growers participating in our area, who also ship to wholesale distributors, are more accustomed to shipping at lower prices and can absorb some economy of scale. It’s not always true and it changes over time as growers experience more challenges with any given crop and accumulate more knowledge over time.
An example of a crop that presents ongoing challenges is broccoli. Broccoli is consumed in pretty large quantities year round. After 5-10 years of growing all the popular members of that family, it gets more challenging to keep that crop in the rotations and still produce a crop with large crowns, reliably. This past year, with challenging weather and individual farm issues, our co-op had to bring in California broccoli on a somewhat regular basis to augment what was available locally. Organic broccoli out of California, was also very expensive this year, so when local growers did have broccoli, they got a better price than normal and or could drop the price and move more quantity because the co-op could run “Sales” on that item.
4. The PRODUCE MANAGER should recommended: Varieties as well as sizing parameters, and case quantities by bunch or by the pound where applicable.
An example of something that presented unforeseen challenges were the more unusual varieties of beets. The co-op had chioggia beets on their list for growing. I signed up to grow them for a number of years, but sales declined to the point that it wasn’t worth growing or trying to sell them. They look nice, but I think once the bold customers had tried them, they decided they liked the other varieties of beets better. Staying with the beet issue, I also grow golden beets, they take longer to mature, and fewer are sold, but the lovers of golden beets at least consume enough that it’s worth growing a somewhat smaller amount than the red beets. I found this to be true both at market and for sales to the co-op.
Responsibilities for the Growers:
1. Before the meeting, growers should have a good idea of: what they would like to grow and how much they would like to grow and what their limits are, both seasonally and quantity wise, especially over the long run, and certification requirements (such as organic certification) by the buyer
Before going to a meeting with a buyer, compile a detailed list of what you want to grow for the buyer by variety, what month the product will be available (roughly), the number of cases or quantity available by pounds each week, etc.
Our co-op only buys organic produce from certified organic farms. They will occasionally purchase something that isn’t organic and label it accordingly, but they won’t buy from growers who claim to be organic. So growers need to be, or plan on being, through the certification process to participate in this program at our co-op. Be sure to bring a copy of your certification with you to the meeting for the buyer.
2. During the season, growers need to understand that it takes considerably more work for the PRODUCE MANAGER to function with this system and they can help by:
Excellent communication.
Routine communication.
Being ready for orders ahead of time with knowledge of product availability and quantity.
Delivering what was ordered at the time agreed upon.
Instead of one or two phone calls a few times per week, the PRODUCE MANAGER and their staff have to track individual crops and delivery days for everything that their produce department purchases from local suppliers. The growers can make this worth their while with excellent communications, well ahead of ordering deadlines to make it easy for the produce people. This means ahead of order day, the grower should be well familiar with what is ready to harvest and in what quantities. The grower should inform the PRODUCE MANAGER what new item is coming a week or two in advance so they can exhaust their supplies purchased from the wholesalers and not be caught unable to order from the local grower because they just stocked up on that item.
For example, I sell at local farmers markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We set up orders and harvest on Tuesdays and Fridays. That means I’m walking through everything on Monday and Thursday so that I’m ready to tell the PRODUCE MANAGER what I’ll have when we talk on the phone. They know I need the order early, especially for leafy greens, to get them harvested before it becomes too hot and sunny. It reduces follow up phone calls and allows the PRODUCE MANAGER to check those items (s)he generally orders before the phone call, making the whole thing more efficient for everyone.
One of the most important reasons for the co-op to go through the increased effort to buy from many growers is freshness and quality. Often, local produce lasts longer and reduces waste for produce staff. Providing only the best quality, paying critical attention to post harvest handling, and clean produce, will make for very happy customers and in turn, happy PRODUCE MANAGER’s as well.
3. Other benefits for the growers: Meeting the other farmers in your area and sharing contact information helps us to develop functional networks and increases other cooperative marketing and growing opportunities. We have been able to pool crops to meet minimums with other businesses looking for organic crops. We’ve shared resources for equipment, seed and other crop inputs. We can work together to help each other because we have the opportunity to establish relationships and be “on the same team.”
Additional Areas that Produce Managers and Farmers Can Work Together for a Successful Local Buying Program
Packaging: The larger growers generally purchase their own boxes with their own logos and labeling, and our co-op produce department staff work hard to recycle those boxes that are reasonable and clean enough to re-use. The co-op provides one space for those growers that have their own printed boxes and another space for growers to take empty boxes as they deliver produce. It helps the growers reduce their cost for packaging and helps the co-op reduce waste and disposal fees. This allocated space outside the produce department has been a great win-win for all. It’s important for organic growers to re-use only boxes that had certified organic produce in them.
Increased sales opportunities: This past year, co-op staff set up a wholesale market day in their parking lot early on a weekday morning as a meeting place for businesses to come and purchase local produce right off the farmers trucks.
Promotion: The grower should provide good farm photos that identify the farm, farmers, crops they grow and help tell their story. Our co-op has enlarged and featured these photos around the produce department. The produce staff has the extra work of continually adjusting the identifying labels with each item. They developed attractive farm ID labels that can easily be changed as sourcing changes.
Education: Our co-op now has a website and posts a weekly update. This is a great place to feature special sales, new crops as seasons progress, and gives the customers something special to look for. The weekly updates can include small pieces from their supplying farms during the season. The growers can tell their story of what is special about something they are selling the co-op that week or what’s going on at the farm. Several of the growers also write annual thank you letters to the co-op newsletter about what it means to be able to sell produce to our local co-op. It is important to point out to members and give specific examples of the positive impact to the community and local businesses that their support of local farmers means. It is also important to point out that it’s more work and more expensive for the co-op to practice business this way. Supporting local organic farmers is an important value for many co-op members and supports the reason many people who shop at co-ops do so. The farmers need to help the co-op tell this story, again and again.
Increasing Produce Sales for the Farmer, Retailer, and Making Happier Customers:
Produce sales at our local co-op have continued to rise despite the recession and even against anticipated declines. The co-op has been a leader in our region offering locally grown organic food. As the interest in local foods have increased, the co-op has been able to meet the demand for local food and helped grow it. This year, produce sales increased by more than they ever have before, even after a major remodel several years ago. This arrangement has been a great opportunity for all.
Appreciation: All of the participating farmers really appreciate this arrangement. It’s a win-win-win situation: for the co-op, the farmers and the eaters. I have people tell me frequently how much they appreciate being able to buy my produce when they shop at the co-op. Every year, we incorporate 1-2 new farmers at the meeting and opportunities change as everyone learns what works and does well or doesn’t. Many of the farmers have been able to adjust crop rotations, to add additional land into production and hire more employees as a result. It really does help build and secure the local economy, and protect local farmland. The farmers can work together to better manage crop rotations and local weather and soil variability and other production constraints. It has been a great opportunity for all and is worth the work to make it happen in your region.