To the editor,
We enjoy your magazine. Virtually all of the articles are at least of interest to us and usually very informative for our business.
The article in the October issue titled “Four Myths of Value-adding” was of particular interest to us. I wish this article had appeared a year ago. It might have saved us a lot of frustration — maybe not.
We have been trying since March to launch a value-added, branded lamb product through a co-operative marketing group of like-minded producers. It has been a most frustrating experience. I agree wholeheartedly with much of what Gerald Pilger has written. In fact, he has only touched on the tip of the iceberg.
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Here are just a few of the challenges that we’ve encountered when trying to market our branded lamb product.
1. Distributors unaware of market potential. The Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency (and the Canadian Sheep Federation) keep telling the producers that we’re undersupplying the market by more than 60 per cent. This message doesn’t seem to be reaching distributors. We did extensive market research before starting this venture. There are numerous market studies that prove consumers prefer Ontario lamb, but the distributors either don’t know about them, or don’t believe them.
2. Lack of time to adequately market the attributes of our product to restaurants and retail outlets. Distributors just distribute, they don’t sell. Hire a salesman? But will they be as passionate about the product as the producer?
3. No time to stand at farmers markets to sell to the public and create demand for our product. We’re big enough that we’ve got the supply, but we’re too busy full-time farming to spend every weekend at farmers markets. Is it even possible to sell enough lamb on Saturday mornings to make a living? Yes, there are numerous mid-week markets, but then we would be spending all of our time marketing and not farming. Also, if we stand at numerous farmers markets to sell directly to the public, then the public has no incentive to ask for our product at retail outlets.
4. Misrepresentation of what products are truly “local.” The joke in the Ontario market place is “if it has sucked air in Ontario, it can be sold as Ontario lamb.” We are in direct competition with lamb from the U.S., Western provinces and even Quebec that is being passed off as “local.” No wonder there is so much inconsistency of product.
5. Distributors wanting highest-premium products at lowest possible prices. We’re competing with other producers who have no idea of their cost of production nor have any expectation of profits. Even though distributors are not at all happy with their current suppliers, they’re not interested in paying our “cost of production” prices because they get their lamb cheaper elsewhere.
6. Tremendous start-up costs that proponents of value chains never mention. Chasing distributors for payment isn’t fun either.
7. Don’t have a knowledge of the rules of the game. Do the same principles that we use to sell breeding stock apply to meat products? Honesty? Integrity? Customer Service? So far, the meat marketing world seems to be pretty much “dog eat dog.”
8. Federal versus provincial meat regulations. The majority of lamb consumed in Ontario is slaughtered in provincially inspected plants. However, larger retail outlets now require that the meat be federally inspected, limiting us to only a couple of abattoirs in western Ontario. Sort of defeats the whole concept of local when we have to truck the lamb around the province to satisfy government regulations.
9. Once the product leaves your control, you can not guarantee efficiency or quality. You might have a premium product, but if someone along the distribution chain screws up, you have an unhappy customer with a substandard product with your name on it! (We had a customer order 40 kg of lamb legs that were to arrive fresh early this morning. Delivery orders got mixed up and the product is arriving frozen at midnight tonight. Will it get thawed and cooked in time for lunch tomorrow?)
There appears to be a whole lot more to this value-added initiative than we first thought. I’m sure we’ll get it figured out eventually. I think that this value-added topic could be studied in more depth in your magazine because there are a lot more challenges than we ever imagined.
John and Eadie Steele
Norwood, Ont.
Note:The Steeles were profiled in a August 2010 article in Country Guide that focused on their use of electronics to integrate production and marketing
To the editor,
I especially appreciated two items in the October issue of Country Guide.
Thank you to Madeleine Baerg for an excellent interview with John Gilchrist, who richly deserves the recognition of the “most trusted voice on food.” I am going to keep this article handy so I can bring it out whenever a victim of the vocal food fads minority needs a look at reality.
The second article that impressed me was “Four myths of value-adding” by Gerald Pilger. I applaud the wisdom of Rod Bradshaw’s observation on value-adding: “Not everyone can do what we do, or no one would make money!”
However, I had huge problems with the highlighted text box at the bottom of page 13. The critical difference between then and now was that the consumer of the past did most of the value-adding (food preparation, bread-making, preserving, etc.) without being paid to do so. No wonder a higher percentage of what the consumer spent on food returned to the farm!
Out here on the farm we often feel abandoned in a wilderness of fantasy and incomplete information. It feels good to know that there are individuals who are willing to address issues from a critical thinking perspective.
My hope for the future lies in the existence of individuals like those cited above who ask the right questions and do a critical analysis of the answers. I shall look forward to more items of equal value in future Country Guide issues.
Wanda Sunde
Alhambra, Alta.
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Country Guide is always eager to hear from our readers, whether it’s feedback on the job we’re doing or to offer additional information or insights. If you want us to consider publishing your letter, simply identify it as letter to the editor when you send it. If you just want to send us a private note, please feel free to do that too. We often receive such letters and won’t print them unless we go back to you and get your specific permission, as we did with the Steeles above. Please send to: [email protected].
