Farmer Recruitment

I am finding an interesting phenomenon in our area.  Many people are considering developing a food item or items to get into direct marketing.  They go to the farmers markets and say to themselves, maybe I could do this.  We have seen career changers or a person who has lost a job looking to their hobbies for inspiration.  If they cooked over the years, their friends may be encouraging them to go “public” with their barbecue sauce or jams.  Now they are willing to try.  These new “foodies” may be just the people for you to recruit.  Your job is to find them and encourage them to join your market.

In some markets the rules only allow produce to be sold but this is usually not the norm.  People shopping like to see variety in food categories like bakery, pickled products, jams, shelf stable foods like chutneys, frozen vegetable and meat pies, sausages, cheeses hard and soft to name a few.  The Federation web site can help you with all of the permits that cover each of these different categories.  Being a market organizer you have to familiarize yourself with these rules because food safety is a big concern and it is your job to help protect the safety of the public.   I spoke in an earlier post about having the person come and present their food item to you and your committee.  You can weed out unprepared vendors by pre-screening them.  If they have inquired to be in your market, send them questions that will help you learn more about their business and product.   We have found that this pre-application gives us a good sense of how far along they are in preparing to sell to the public.  Some questions you may ask are:  Have you ever sold your product before? Do you have a business plan? Do you carry insurance or can you get it?  Where do you make your food item?  Where do you source your ingredients?  The answers they give will help you decide if you want to meet them to continue the dialog.

Not every vendor who you add to your markets will make a go of it.  Statistics indicated that many businesses fail within a short period.  The product needs to be unique, have a story that is compelling, taste good to a wide range of people, have a good price point and be attractively presented.   If a vendor has not done their homework, such as taking some business courses on marketing, they may find they don’t have the skills they need to do well.  If you find a vendor who you think has potential but seems timid or tentative, it may be better for them to do more preparation and return to you in one year.  It will be better for both of you since you don’t want them to fail when they are in your market.  Once they become more assured of themselves they will do better in the market.  For example we had a person come to us several years ago with a recipe for a specialty salsa. It was a family recipe but at the time, the person had not figured out the labeling, the permits needed and where she would make it.  She did not get into our markets and we lost sight of her.   Just this year after a delay of several years she returned having solved all the issues and was ready to jump in.

Another source for vendors may be right in your local newspaper.  Check out the food and the lifestyle section.  This is a good place to find out about trends in the food industry and the types of foods people are looking for.  More people with allergies are looking for gluten free baked goods, and then there is a growing group of people who are vegans.  These are two categories that the press is writing about and someone in your area may be following this trend and making foods with these profiles.  While they may attract a smaller segment of the shopping public, if their product is tasty, they may find that people who are not gluten intolerant or vegans will buy their items too and become customers.

Miriam