Value-Added Agriculture

I attended this year’s “Maryland’s Best Expo” organized by the Maryland Department of Agriculture to highlight Maryland products to a wide variety of buyers. This year’s offerings featured value-added products from at least three - quarters of the attending exhibitors. This event could easily be billed as a Maryland Specialty Foods Show too, with the number, variety and quality of value-add products shown, tasted, and sold that day. Kudos to all in attendance. What a change in product offerings from just a few years ago.

The purpose of regulations and licensing for food processing. Is to ensure the safety of the food supply and oversee commerce. Food processing standards and regulations vary widely based on the type of food being considered and the scale of the operation.

For two beautiful days in mid-September, I had the opportunity to join Penn State Extension’s Annual “Are You Crazy?” Retail Farm Market Bus Tour. This year, guided by Penn State Extension Educators, Brian Moyer and Carla Synder, the tour provided participants with an opportunity to visit premier retail farm marketing/agritourism enterprises to see new things, get ideas to use at home, learn from each other, and build a network of contacts.

How, when, and where should you start your marketing efforts? The process can be overwhelming- should I market my brands, what about social media posts, and who will buy my products? To help you organize your marketing steps, it is vital you have a marketing statement. You may have heard this statement called, “Your Elevator Speech”.

While the holiday season may seem a ways off, the line between when customers shop and when they take offense to holiday décor in stores is becoming a blurry one. The National Retail Federation reports that every year, about 40 percent of customers begin their holiday shopping before Halloween.

Everyone likes to point to “Millennials” as the customer base we must now tailor our products, services, and delivery logistics to satisfy. No doubt, their purchasing preferences have heralded in a demand for more convenience in their shopping options (online versus brick-and-mortar stores), more diversity in their menu selections (nose-to-tail meat options or only plant-based “meat” imitators), and to-their door, in a box, or ready-made meals and kits.

Whether you’re selling raw or value-added farm products, breeding stock, agritourism experiences, or business services, the start of a new year is a good time to develop your digital marketing “action tools”. There’s lots of buzz words or phrases surrounding direct marketing activities, but let’s focus on just four suggestions to improve your marketing results in 2016. Remember that these suggestions still need to be viewed through the filter of your own farm business.

I get a lot of questions about certifications. What certifications should a farmer or landscaper or food entrepreneur get? What professional development certifications can UMD Extension help you work towards? If you ask me that question, I’ll likely ask you to take a moment to think about why you want certification. Do you want to make sure your business is complying with relevant regulations? Do you want to go above and beyond what is required to set your business apart from your competition? Is one of your customers asking for a specific certification? Are you looking for a job and hoping a certification on your resume will help you find one?

Selling in quantity to a buyer who then resells the product. Most agricultural products in the US are sold through wholesale channels. Small farmers may sell wholesale directly to local grocery stores, natural food stores, food service establishments, and food buying co-ops or to buyers who then serve as the middle man in the marketing chain.

Since distribution is the means of getting your product into the hands of your customers, first look at how your competitors’ products are sold. Make a list of any competitors in your marketing area that could compete directly with you for the same list of customers. This list should then be divided into different distribution channels. For example, direct farm markets, farmers’ markets, Internet sales, business-to-business, specialty stores, or niche markets.