So my advice to everyone, is build your farm backwards. What exactly does that mean? You can’t put up greenhouse panels before you have the floor poured or the frames assembled, can you? No, building backwards means discovering your market before the first seed is started. Easier said than done, sometimes but not if you have a plan. My favorite axiom is “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” Of course no one deliberately sets out to fail but it is easy to fall into that lettuce and tomato mindset.
Finding your market requires you to explore one or more of the following: grocery store produce managers, Farm Coops, retail “agri-tourism”, controlled share associations, farmers’ markets, institutional culinary managers, and on-line sells. I could speak volumes on each, as to what is involved, and what are the advantages and disadvantages but to keep this post short, I’ll only touch on a few things for each category.
Approaching a grocery store manager is as simple as making a phone call, writing a letter, or making a cold-call to the store itself. However, you don’t introduce yourself by saying, “I have the ability to deliver 500 head of lettuce per week.” Rather you say, “Our farm can produce anything that you currently have a need for. What items are you finding difficult to source?” You might be surprised if they reply, “I could take 6 dozen bags of fresh basil per week”, or maybe, “I could use 30-40 ounces of lemon grass every week.” Most groceries will require detailed packaging (which is a plus because you can brand your items with your logo) and UPC labels.
Whatever the response, you conclude your meeting by saying, “I’ll have a sample over to you in “X” days, (depends on germination and harvest times). The key to success is (and this applies to every type of market) consistency and flexibility. You don’t want beautiful parsley one week and next week you deliver what appears to have been mauled by hungry deer. You must also be able to react and respond if suddenly, they want fresh bean sprouts instead of lemon grass. The beauty of hydroponics is how quickly you can shift focus on your crops. One other caveat, and this applies to all sales: do not copy-cat a product. If Joe Smith’s Organic Farm is producing red radish greens, don’t decide to undercut the market by growing them, too. When you copy-cat, you diminish the market share, and cheapen your own product while creating over-competition for the same market.
Farm Cooperatives or agricultural cooperatives, are where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. There are agricultural service cooperatives, which provide various services to their individually farming members, and agricultural production cooperatives, where production resources are pooled and members farm jointly. Examples of this would be collective farms in former socialist countries, or the kibbutzim in Israel. In America, it usually means an agricultural service cooperative or ASC. There are two primary types of ASC’s, supply cooperative and marketing cooperative. Supply cooperatives supply their members with inputs for agricultural production, including seeds, fertilizers, fuel, and machinery services. Marketing cooperatives are established by farmers to undertake transportation, packaging, distribution, and marketing of farm products, including livestock. The marketing coop is suited to smaller and fluctuating production, so ideal for hydro or aquaponics. You can also sell “loose” items without packaging but overall the pricing will be lower than in other markets.
Retail sales and/or agri-tourism is great if you live near a major metropolitan area, are on a main road for visibility, and are people-oriented. You can offer tours to school groups, or the general public, show them the growing facilities, and offer free samples. Then, other items can be purchased or ordered for future sales. Retail sales will almost always exceed any other type.
Controlled Share Associations or CSA for short, are like buying futures in the stock market. A commitment is made for a portion of your crop in advance to it being grown, so you’re guaranteed the sell (if your crop comes in). Pricing will typically be wholesale but the guaranty part can make it an attractive option.
Farmer’s Markets are a great way to gather information for free, while selling your produce at retail prices. Seeing what people buy and what other farmers grow, can give you great insight into where your niche should be. You also have the flexibility to become creative, i.e. making salsa from peppers and tomatoes that are blemished and therefore not sellable as first-rate produce. Juicing items that didn’t turn out as well as you’d expected, i.e. lemon grass juice sells for $32/ gallon in California. Or try picking some of those cross-pollinated cucumbers that look like a yellow melon!
Institutional sales can be anything from a school to a nursing home, from a restaurant to a jail or penitentiary. On the high end would be 4 and 5 star restaurants because they love red radish greens and micro grasses as garnishes on their $50/ plate entrees, and they can afford to pay above-market prices for high quality items. Mesclun salad mixes may use an assortment of chervil, arugula, leafy lettuces, and endive, all easy to grow hydroponically. Spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, mustard greens, dandelion, frisée, mizuna, mâche, radicchio, sorrel, are also in demand. My warning on institutional sales is simple: they will adjust your price down based on current market conditions and they’ll drop you as a supplier if someone comes in at a lower price. They’re big and can afford to be harsh with their vendors.
On-line sales: If you have anyone savvy with website design, it is easy to add on-line order forms to your existing site, price lists, schedule of production, etc., as well as announcements, i.e. “Bumper crop of watermelon”, or “Sweetest yellow peppers, ever!” Since your website “hits” determine where you’re placed in search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., adding an on-line store will increase your traffic across the board. My only warning is, you may need a delivery truck, as packaging fresh produce and getting it to the buyer while it is at its peak, can be tricky, otherwise. It wouldn’t do for someone in St. Louis to order 100 pounds of tomatoes if tour farm is in Vermont.
In conclusion, build your farm backwards and you’re guaranteed a market! Happy aqua and hydroponic farming.