Building Wholesale Relationships – selling your products to local grocers
A new season of online seminars on farming topics is around the corner – but that doesn’t mean you need to wait to start learning from farmers. Thirty-six recordings of previous Practical Farmers of Iowa Farminars are available now so you can learn from the wisdom of folks who are actually farming!
This blog spotlights the recording from March 8, 2011 with New Pioneer Cooperative Grocery staff member Mike Krough and horticulture farmer Derek Roller. View the complete recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p73337156.
Topics discussed in this Farminar:
- How to approach new customers
- Pricing
- Order and delivery
- Contracts
- Maintain a steady supply
Derek Roller has an annual meeting in December with his grocery store buyer and sets prices for the next growing season. Derek works with the New Pioneer Co-Op because they have a goal to purchase food produced locally, not just the cheapest product from anywhere in the world. They reflect on the previous year, how the price before worked out for the business, if there is flexibility to raise the price, need to lower the price, or need to keep the prices the same. They also strategize ways to increase sales by offering the products in different manners – by the bunch, by the pound, or another method.
View the complete recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p73337156.
To see other Farminars, and to register for the upcoming events, go to practicalfarmers.org/farminar
Derek Roller grows fruits and vegetables near Iowa City, IA
A grant from the Ceres Foundation made it possible for this Farminar to be recorded, and pay the farmers for their time taken to share their knowledge.