off season options
Anita Graf (agraf@agecon.uga.edu)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 16:22:20 EST5EDT
klaus writes:
> if you were an organic grower (let's assume vegetables or fruit)
> and you know, you can't compete - meaning you have nothing to
> sell during the winter months - with supermarkets: how would you
> react ?
>
> the farmer has two options:
>
> a) stay in the market with a (maybe extremely reduced
> assortement) and very likely losing money or having an hourly
> income not worth the time spent
>
> b) switch to sell non-organic food from southern countries and
> (that's important for the confidance) to clearly tell your
> clients, that this is conventional food
>
How about an options c) that is selling value-added products from the
summer surplus like tomato sauces, fruit jams, dried fruits, pickles,
etc? I assume that if one can grow brassicas, one might also have
potatoes, winter squash, and onions/garlic from storage at least. In
areas where nothing in the market-garden repetoir can be grown, seems
like long-storage processed foods would be the only choice for a
farmer who wants to market his own goods (of course in these sorts of
climates, I doubt there is a farmer's market in the winter, so the
need to defend one's stand there doesn't seem like the main issue.)
Also, if there is a chance of changing tastes to be more seasonally
appropriate, it seems like the organic-buying community might be the
most amenable to this, even as it may be a lost cause for other types
of consumers. Anita
Anita Graf
313-F Conner Hall
Dept. of Agricultural and Applied Economics
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7509
(706) 542-1915 phone
(706) 542-0739 fax
agraf@agecon.uga.edu
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