Wheat ending stocks for 2022/23 were lowered to 3.540 million tonnes by AAFC, from an estimated 3.980 million tonnes in June. The new crop wheat carryout was cut by 700,000 tonnes, to 5.100 million. Wheat production for 2023/24 was pegged at 35.331 million tonnes, down from 35.751 in June but still well above the 33.824 million tonnes grown in 2022/23. 

The oats carryout for 2023/24 was another notable adjustment, dropping to only 450,000 tonnes, from an estimated 1.000 million in June and the current marketing year target of 1.250 million tonnes. Total Canadian oats production was forecast at only 2.816 million tonnes in 2023/24, an 800,000 tonne drop from the June estimate and below the 5.226 million tonnes grown in 2022/23. 

Canola production for 2023/24 was raised to 18.800 million tonnes, from 18.400 million in June. However, ending stocks were left unchanged at the relatively tight levels of 650,000 tonnes for the current crop year and 600,000 tonnes in 2023/24.  

New crop production estimate for both peas and lentils were lowered from the June report as AAFC factored in Statistics Canada’s latest acreage estimates to 2.900 million and 2.100 million tonnes respectively. Pea ending stocks for 2023/24 are now forecast at 225,000 tonnes, from 375,000 in June and 400,000 the previous year. Lentil ending stocks are forecast at 125,000 tonnes, which would be down from the 200,000 tonnes projected in June but still up from the 100,000-tonne carryout anticipated for the current marketing year. 

— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.

The post AAFC lowers Canadian wheat ending stocks estimates appeared first on Country Guide.

Few jobs are more studded with brands than farming. Farmers fill their equipment sheds with brands, they seed and spray their fields with brands, they even wear them.

Now, the farm itself is becoming a brand, with more farms across the country putting more thought into how they can use modern marketing so buyers, input suppliers, and just about everyone else will see that doing business with their farm is the right thing for them to do.

It’s all based on the idea that everyone has a brand. Whether you think you do or don’t is beside the point. It’s like how your neighbours have an idea whether you’re lazy or hard-working, or whether you’re friendly or stand-offish, without you actually telling them.

The difference is, with modern branding you take charge of what you want others — especially the people you do business with — do think of you. Then you use branding strategies to make sure those ideas get imbedded.

It raises a question, though. Why would you want to stand out?

Elysia Vandenhurk, chief revenue officer (CRO) of Three Farmers, a company founded over a decade ago by Saskatchewan farmers Colin Rosengren, Ron Emde and Dan Vandenhurk, had a crystal clear reason for wanting to brand their enterprise. They were breaking new ground, trying to get buyers they hadn’t yet met to want to buy a kind of oil none of them had ever used.

Over this past decade, however, Three Farmers’ need for branding has evolved into something even more sophisticated, now that it is also a consumer packed-goods company that produces and markets snack foods made from various pulses as well as cold-pressed camelina oil.

Country Guide has talked with Three Farmers in the past, and we went back to Vandenhurk again to see what her key brand learnings have been through that decade.

To Vandenhurk, it’s been a voyage discovering that so many of the benefits that branding experts talk about can also be immensely valuable for farm businesses.

What does that mean? “Your brand is the persona that goes out there but it also is what leads the culture of your internal people and communicates your values,” Vandenhurk says.

“The brand is something that threads through everything your company does, how you hire, who you hire, how you make decisions, the products and services you put out there. It’s the core element that threads through the company and leads the success of the company.”

At Three Farmers today, it is Elysia and sister Natasha who handle the day-to-day running of the company. Natasha, who is currently CEO, has a degree in business economics from the University of Saskatchewan, and Elysia is a Red Seal Chef. They are using their combination of education and training to move the company to the next level, which depends on them creating a Three Farmers brand identity that is recognized worldwide.

“We have a unique structure because we have the three initial founding farmers, then myself and my sister, who are also founders, and we are daughters of farmers but a different generation with different skillsets,” Vandenhurk says. “Right out of the gate, we had a really good team around the table that offered very different skills and value.”

But even with oodles of talent around the table from the outset, one of their biggest strengths was recognizing the skills they didn’t have and approaching a professional marketing agency to fill the gaps.

“When we decided we were going to pursue a food product made from camelina, we went to a marketing agency right away because we knew we were moving into consumer-packaged goods,” Vandenhurk says. “We knew that we needed to bring this idea to life in a creative form … We needed a brand, a story and a creative look to go with the quality and functionality of what the product is.”

Building a brand identity

A brand identity answers the big question of why someone would ever want to do business with you instead of some other farm somewhere else.

“Why me? What is my unique differentiator?” asks Vandenurk. “That is the point that you need to hit home.”

In a way, it’s more straightforward for Three Farmers than for most farms. They’ve got a product to sell based on their unique food and snack skills. But it’s more than that too. They also have a core set of values which makes them good people to do business with.

At its core, though, it’s the same for any farm. The principals of any farm might start by asking themselves why they farm. What are your values and beliefs? How are those beliefs reflected in the way you farm and the products the farm produces? What is the culture and personality of your farm? How does the farm stand out?

“Write out your story,” Vandenhurk says. “Then reach out of your comfort zone.” Take a buyer out to lunch and tell them your story. See what they react to. Test your story with others too. Even consider urbanites who know nothing about farming. If you write a long paragraph about your farm — the kind of thing you often see on websites — what parts of it do people react to?

The odds, says Vandenhurk, are that you’ll be wrong about what they latch onto. “Something we learned along the way is that what we think is going to sell, or what we think people want to hear, isn’t actually that. It’s a different piece of the story they want to hear,” she says.

In fact, it’s good advice across the board.

Farms are feeling more pressure to differentiate themselves in some way and to brand themselves as progressive or technologically innovative, or as leaders in things like stewardship or eco-friendly practices because consumers are demanding to know more about where their food comes from and the people who grow it.

“Listen to your audience and to the consumer,” Vandenhurk says. “How are they evolving? What are the questions they’re asking and what are the pain points they have? The pain points change and evolve but if you have a product or service out there, and you are no longer filling a gap or conveniently solving some sort of pain point then you become irrelevant.”

For Three Farmers, the process is continuous. They constantly invite feedback and validate the brand, especially via their social media channels.

“Our social channels are kind of a community where the consumer comes to ask more questions,” Vandenhurk says. “We want to know who is coming to our channels and why are they there? How did they get there? How did they hear about us? What content are they looking for? Is it educational, is it fun content, what are they there for?”

There’s a valuable lesson at the bottom of it, Vandenhurk says. “There are so many different messages and so many things we want to say, but sometimes when you say too much you don’t say anything.”

Spending the money

Building a brand is likely going to cost some money and it can be hard sometimes to see the value of that investment, especially for commodity-based farms that don’t have a direct connection to the end-consumer.

“You have to put money into a brand to bring it to life, and people can struggle with the value of that sometimes, especially at the farm gate,” Vandenhurk says. “But a brand is a tool that’s used for your internal culture, for how you hire people, the partners you partner with, the people you do business with. It can be used as a very effective tool in building success for your business. It helps you make decisions, because when you have refined the things that go into your brand, your decisions and innovations always ladder back to it.”

How to get started

Tim Young, founder of Small Farm Nation, says the basic ideas are simple. Farms are unique businesses that need a strong business brand to thrive, he says. And deciding what the brand should focus on is almost always an easy choice.

“The heart of any farm business is the farmer,” says Young. “The best farms are those where the farmer has established something of a personal brand.”

Young started his career in corporate America but left to start a marketing agency in 1995 that grew to 450 employees. But Young says he began wanting to do something that was more “soul-satisfying,” so he sold the business in 2006 and began a pastured-livestock and artisan cheese business on a farm in Georgia. Now, under the banner of Small Farm Nation, he offers marketing courses and website and branding services to farmers across the U.S.

The Small Farm Nation website and blog are loaded with tips to help farmers get started on branding their farm business, and Young has given permission to Country Guide to reproduce a Canadianized version, which we have adapted below:

Take a stand.
Leaders take stands, whether it’s for something (i.e. sustainability) or against something else (poor customer service). So take a stand but frame your message with a positive outcome for the consumer. Don’t just rant about what’s wrong; paint a vision of how the world would be better off with your vision. We’re drawn to people with vision.

Be consistently present.
Leaders show up. For most farms, this is what blogging, social media and content marketing are all about. If you’re larger, you might use public relations and the media. Either way, just get out there with your message, consistently.

Create sound bites.
A sound bite is a message that you distill into a few words. This becomes a “repeatable nugget” where the goal is to help people recall what you said and why you said it. Put in the time to distill your message into sound bites so it is easy for others to carry your torch. Begin building a personal farm brand by creating a powerful sound bite that is reflective of your farm brand. It should be less than nine seconds long to read: the shorter the better. The average sound bite today is seven seconds. Then use the sound bite consistently to reinforce your brand message and include it in quotes in social media image headers.

It’s not about you. It’s about them.
You’re the change agent. Your customer is the beneficiary. Your goal is to change the world or create something for their benefit. Once they clearly understand how they benefit and why the change you represent is much better for them, they’ll hop aboard your train.

Show the real you.
Particularly on social media, show the real you. This means it’s not all business all the time. Share something personal about yourself, whether it’s talking about your family or sharing a picture of you in a ridiculous Halloween costume with your kids, or at a social gathering. Be real, because you want people to relate to you as a real person, not a corporate icon.

Be transparent.
Have the courage to be vulnerable. Let people know your worries, or that you make mistakes. It shows you are human and builds empathy. Don’t always try to be “right.” You’re taking a stand, you’re pursuing a better way of life, but you are still a human.

Help ‘them’ to get involved.
Think about how your audience can take action or get involved and engage with you in some way. What do you want them to do? Your followers need you to guide them to the actions that will help you to succeed as the change agent you represent. Don’t just deliver the message; tell them what they need to do to help you achieve the vision.

Act one to many: think one to one.
The best way to build your brand might be to sit down with each person individually, but that’s not realistic. Instead, we have to use technology. In that sense, we’re acting as one to many. We create one post and distribute it to many people, which is a better leverage of your time. However, your message needs to sound like one-to-one so the listener feels you are speaking directly to them. Farmers who excel at this are relatable and their messages always resonate. That’s the goal. It’s an art, but one you can master.

The post Talking up the farm story appeared first on Country Guide.

As you sip your favourite morning brew, you probably aren’t thinking about what type of beans were used, where they were grown, who farmed them or how they arrived at your breakfast table or drive-through window.

But coffee beans are to Colombia what wheat is to Canada and its farmers — the country’s largest agricultural export.

Colombia, dubbed the Gateway to South America, boasts ideal soil on the slopes of the Andes and abundant rain making the country a world-class place to grow high-quality Arabica coffee.

Then there’s also how it’s growen, with hand-picked harvesting perfected over generations.

Coffee beans, the seeds of a coffee cherry, grow on a variety of species, both trees and shrubs. Of the two main species, Arabica and Robusta, Arabica, the most popular worldwide, flourishes in Colombia. The varietal is expensive to grow because of its sensitivity to the environment. The trees and shrubs require shade, humidity and steady temperatures between 16 and 21 C

Coffea arabica came to the area from Ethiopia in the early 1700s by way of the Dutch East Indies. Most historians credit the introduction to the Dutch Jesuit monks who farmed in Valle del Cauca in the mountainous northeast, but others credit Father Romero, a parochial priest who prescribed planting coffee seeds as penance for parishioners’ confessed sins.

Either way, or both, the little plants took off.

In the early 1800s, Colombia began to export commercially. A century later, the country had become one of the largest coffee-producing countries in the world. Today, it ranks third, behind Brazil and Vietnam and enjoys accolades as the best “soft” coffee producer worldwide.

“Soft coffee does not mean weak coffee,” says Juan Filipe Lozano, a Colombian-certified specialty coffee master and CEO of Caffa Colombia. “It is like we Colombians are, sweet and friendly, never bitter and you cannot get enough of it.”

Lozano was speaking recently to a group of travel journalists in Bogotá. He described how coffee culture worldwide has been riding a wave — four of them, actually — since the beginning of the 20th century.

During the first wave, coffee beans were considered a single farm commodity. Think canola or soybeans. Instant coffee surfaced during the Second World War to keep U.S. soldiers alert and fighting.

After the war, coffee chains and branded products marked the beginning of the second wave. So did an Italian invention. Luigi Bezzera, an impatient Venetian businessman, wanting his morning cuppa pronto, began to experiment. He discovered that incorporating steam into the process slashed the brew time and — bonus — created a more robust drink. Et voila! Espresso.

At the beginning of the 1990s, U.S. cities such as New York and Seattle ushered in the third wave by tracking the origin of the beans and by creating brand-name recognition. Consumers began to ask, “Where does my coffee come from?” Major cities around the world recognized a marketing opportunity and shifted the focus from commodity to specialty products.

Enter the fourth wave. “It belongs to us,” Lozano says. “Colombia has moved from tradition to innovation. Many people travel for wine or craft beer. Visitors, especially millennials and centennials, are now coming to Colombia specifically to learn about coffee.” The result? Bogotá, the largest city and the capital, has become a coffee tourism destination and the capital of the fourth wave.

COVID-19 has also played a role in the fourth wave. In response to mandated work-from-home policies, many consumers began experimenting with their own specialty coffee drinks at home. Gen Zs, in particular, began showing a preference for cold coffee drinks. As a result, this has boosted the specialty coffee demand across North and South America.

In Bogotá, you will find a plethora of craft coffee roasters and specialty coffee shops, including Juan Valdez stores that outnumber Starbucks by 15 to 1. You’ll also find a Juan Valdez shop in most towns and cities throughout the country.

Juan Valdez, a fictional coffee farmer and his mule, Conchita, were the 1958 brainchild of a New York marketing agency. Their client, the Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers, was eager to validate and promote 100 per cent genuine Colombian coffee. Valdez, in his signature wide-brimmed hat plus his trusty four-footed sidekick, has been everywhere since, making it easy for consumers to identify the genuine article. “Wildly successful” doesn’t begin to describe the results of this campaign. (Note: Juan Valdez coffee launched into Canada’s retail and e-commerce coffee market in 2022.)

As the melting pot for coffee from all regions of the country, Bogotá lets visitors discover a multitude of flavours, depending on where the beans grow. Each specialty coffee shop becomes an embassy of the different regions of the country. From the north you get deeper, earthier flavours, richer body and medium acidity, with notes of nuts and chocolate. Coffee from central Colombia is balanced with fruity and herbal notes and with coffee from the south, you can expect a smooth high sweetness, medium body with pronounced acidity and citrus notes. “We even have a coffee that tastes like wine, because the beans have gone through a fermentation process,” says Lozano

The best way to enjoy a hands-on coffee experience is a leisurely visit to a coffee shop such as Juan Lozano’s top-rated Caffa Colombia. Like a wine cellar for coffee, you can participate in barista tastings, enjoy the best coffees paired with tempting pastries and desserts, and learn coffee is more than a taste-good refresher; there’s a story in every cup.

At 2,600 metres above sea level, Bogotá is too high to grow coffee beans. But you don’t need to travel far to visit a plantation. Outside the town of Fusagasugá, a 90-minute drive south of the capital, Hacienda Coloma, a colonial-era hacienda and working coffee farm, welcomes visitors for daily plantation tours. While strolling through stunning, jungle-like gardens, Jessica, our guide, gave us a seed-to-sip tutorial about production and processing.

Then, as we picked coffee “cherries,” Jessica explained the value of choosing only ripe cherries to get the best flavour. “The colours vary with the species and change as they ripen,” she says. “Female pickers often paint their nails the exact colour of ripe cherry to eliminate any guesswork.”

Green beans are roasted at high heat to release the rich aroma and flavour we love. They are then cooled and ground. The lighter the roast, the lighter the colour and flavour and the higher the acidity. Dark roasts have less acidity and a bitter flavour, making medium-dark, or French roast, the most popular.

We marvelled at a working example of a Second World War Willys Jeep and learned how these sturdy vehicles have become the mule replacement, transporting sacks of beans over bumpy mountain terrain. Our tour ended with a tasting, an outdoor lunch and an opportunity to shop for the farm’s signature coffee liqueur. Could we be forgiven for dozing on the drive back to the city?

The Federación Nacional de Cafeteros (the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia), a non-profit business association, founded in 1927, is probably the most powerful trade group in the country. It’s also the predominant factor in how a nation of small, independent coffee farmers became a world leader. Their mission: to “improve the quality of life of coffee growers and promote the quality of Colombian coffee worldwide.” The organization represents more than 500,000 producers throughout the country. Most are family-owned farms of less than 12 acres. About 30 per cent of the growers and most of the pickers are women. Coffee production provides income for 25 per cent of the population, making it the most important business in the country.

In 2011, UNESCO designated Colombia’s Coffee Cultural Landscape a World Heritage Site citing its sustainable blend of culture and productivity, showing how farms can be the foundation of a strong economy even in the country’s high, mountainous forests, and today, Juan Lozano, will tell you he doesn’t care if the cup is half-empty or half-full as long as it contains good Colombian coffee.

Apparently, others think so too. Worldwide, fans consume 2.8 billion cups of coffee a day, making it the second-most popular beverage in the world after water.

The post Coffee, from the ground up appeared first on Country Guide.

Then, they learned why. “It turns out the Toronto District School Board promoted our website,” says Kelly Daynard, the group’s executive director.

“Teachers were trying to figure out how to teach online; parents were trying to look for stuff to show their kids, and our technology was in place to help both achieve that.”

It’s why the word “power” has taken on such a new meaning.

Today, trending hashtags generate huge energy, both positive and negative. Battles over “fake news” flame constantly. Arguments break out over myth versus fact. And social media keeps growing.

Is our industry keeping up? Do we even know who the consumer is in this fast-paced, dynamic world?

Farming is an industry based on tradition and family business. Farmers work hard and feel they should be portrayed that way, and that they should be recognized for their “salt-of-the-earth” values.

But does this mean they shouldn’t also showcase themselves as professionals?

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In fact, that may be the biggest question of all. How do innovative, technologically adept farmers build consumer trust in the “new farmer” they are becoming?

Country Guide spoke with Christina Crowley-Arklie, founder of Crowley + Arklie Strategy and Co., about the future of communications in agriculture and food. Crowley-Arklie grew up on a dairy farm in central Ontario and previously worked for Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs as press secretary and senior communications advisor.

“Agriculture and food must go through a rebrand,” Crowley-Arklie says. Farming needs to update the image of farmers and how they tell their stories, she says. “We need to bring attractiveness — a sexiness if you will — to our sector to attract the right stories in media, attract more talent to work for our sector, and to showcase our leadership, innovation and essentialism.”

It’s a challenge, Crowley-Arklie says. But, she adds, “The opportunities are also very exciting at a time like this.”

Part of the answer has to do with efficiency. How do farmers reach the modern consumer so agriculture’s messages will actually penetrate?

Crowley-Arklie says it all needs to start with meeting consumers on their food journey when they are thinking of the farm, often without even knowing it. “We need to get in the minds of our consumers and think about when they’re most often thinking about food, how they’re consuming information on it, and what questions they’re asking,” says Crowley-Arklie. “As a mother myself, and the end-consumer who consumes information and stories about agriculture and food on social media, through TV and digital means online, it could be in the morning when I am packing a lunch. Or right before lunch when I am thinking ‘Do I eat my healthy salad, or do I go to McDonald’s for that chicken snack wrap?’ Or it is at nighttime when meal prepping, or when you are grocery shopping with the kids on the weekend. These are the times when consumers are asking about food.”

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When we choose where in their daily schedules we are going to have our conversations with consumers, then we are able to target our communications to them. What does the parent want to know when they are packing their children’s lunch? Well, they want to be sure the food they bought for the children is healthy, safe and nutritious. And they also want to know that it contributes to a healthy world for their children to grow up in, so the parents are ready to hear about eating locally and supporting local producers.

That means messages about food quality and farm sustainability will get listened to. But, there’s another “but.”

“Chances are that consumers are sourcing information from a food personality, influencer or friend online,” says Crowley-Arklie. “They see a video on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok about a food-related topic that wasn’t maybe top of mind for them and they then begin to ask questions.” 

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Compared to the ’80s and ’90s, when television was the dominant force, and when events were such a big deal, it’s a different world. It’s why there’s a shift in how agricultural organizations are communicating and reaching customers by trying to bring the food experience to life with campaigns like “The Pig Mobile” from Ontario Pork and campaigns targeted specifically at what Canadian consumers are looking for, such as Dairy Farmer’s of Canada’s Net Zero 2050 goal campaign just recently launched.

Farm organizations themselves are also turning to social media and virtual reality. Farm and Food Care Ontario is one organization that offers virtual reality and 360-degree videos. Their innovation goes back to 2006 when they began filming virtual farms and posting online to expand into the virtual reality of today.

“Now it is all about a 360-degree experience,” says the association’s Daynard. “We wanted people to feel what it’s like to be on the farm and now with VR (virtual reality goggles), they can literally immerse themselves and walk around the barn, have sheep walk by you. It brings the farm experience as close as possible for those not on the farm.”

And, as noted above, it also created that opportunity for Toronto’s school children.

Then there are also the social media trailblazers across Canada — those who have amassed massive followings by bringing social media to life for consumers. Sandi Brock, a sheep farmer from Ontario for example, has amassed millions of views on her YouTube channel by creating both entertaining and educational videos about her daily adventures with her sheep. That is a trend worth watching, Crowley-Arklie says: “A targeted approach with personal storytelling from the farm to meet our consumers on social media is growing.”

To support this way of advancing communication directly between farmer and consumer, organizations like Farm and Food Care Ontario, along with its sister organization, Farm and Food Care Saskatchewan, provide training called “Speak Up” to farmers to help share the story of agriculture.

“Ten times out of 10 we want the farmer to be the voice and share their own story,” Daynard says. 

This, though, takes us back to the question of how the average producer can begin to take ownership of their communications and play a role in strengthening the trust between consumers and our food system. 

Some advice from Crowley-Arklie? Avoid the word “education.”

“When someone says they want to help educate you, it makes you feel unsure whether you want to trust that person,” she says. 

And agriculture must do more, including encouraging consumers to develop a bigger picture of the Canadian food system — not just from the farmer to the consumer, but providing perspectives from along the value chain of farmers, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers.

It’s also essential that farmers explore whether “food system” is a concept that Canadian consumers will relate to, especially in connection with the stories they will trust.

The point is, consumers trust people. And they may even trust a system, as long as they trust the people in it.

Says Crowley-Arkley, “We need to leverage these people and their incredible stories.”

The post Working on a hashtag appeared first on Country Guide.

Biden said thousands of people with prior federal convictions could be denied employment, housing or educational opportunities and his executive action would relieve such “collateral” consequences.

Biden’s move fulfills a campaign promise and is likely to please members in his left-leaning political base ahead of the November midterm elections in which the president’s fellow Democrats are defending control of the House of Representatives and Senate.

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden said.

He urged state governors to follow suit.

“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said.

Shares of cannabis growers and sellers surged following Biden’s comments, with Tilray Brands and Canopy Growth both jumping more than 20 per cent.

The results of a classification review could have wide ramifications. Presently the drug falls under the same classification as heroin and LSD and is in a higher classification than fentanyl and methamphetamine, the president said.

If marijuana classification were to ease at the federal level, that could allow major stock exchanges to list businesses that are in the cannabis trade, and potentially allow foreign companies to begin selling their products in the U.S.

While many states have legalized the medical or recreational use of cannabis, the substance remains illegal under U.S. federal law, forcing most major banks to deny their services to cannabis-related businesses.

The issue has forced U.S. marijuana companies to trade their shares over the counter or by listing in Canada, with the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange prohibited from listing them.

The president’s action drew praise from some members of Congress.

“The Progressive Caucus applauds this action by President Biden today to advance criminal and racial justice,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, who chairs a group of left-leaning lawmakers, in a statement.

Biden said he had directed Attorney General Merrick Garland to develop an “administrative process” to issue certificates of pardon to those who are eligible.

“The Justice Department will expeditiously administer the President’s proclamation, which pardons individuals who engaged in simple possession of marijuana, restoring political, civil, and other rights to those convicted of that offense,” the department said in a statement.

Biden said certain rules needed to stay in place even as regulations around the country loosened.

“Finally, even as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes, important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales should stay in place,” Biden said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu; additional reporting by Noel Randewich, Shariq Khan and Richard Cowan.

The post Biden overhauling U.S. marijuana policy appeared first on Country Guide.

Increasingly, though, today’s farmers are applying their management skills to the job. How can they set themselves up for better results?

There are a multitude of marketing strategies, tools and services available and certainly more than one right way to use them. 

What these new farmers are finding, however, is that there are also strategic options at the heart of every farm’s marketing plan — whether they get called “strategic” or not — and they can make huge differences, even when applied across sectors and geographies.

To put it to the test, Country Guide talked to three regional winners from Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers program, which aims to recognize excellent farm operators between the ages of 18 and 39. We asked them, “What are you doing to up your marketing game?” Here’s what we learned.

Added Capability

Jason and Laura Kehler, Kehler Farms Ltd., Carman, Man., 2016 Manitoba Outstanding Young Farmers

Jason Kehler had used forward contracts for many years, but as the business grew, its combined accounting, marketing and production needs became overwhelming. He and Laura were burning the candle at both ends, and they knew they had to make a change.

In 2019, Kehler recruited Trevor Wiens to join the team as a chief financial officer and director of grain marketing, and he feels adding the role has only improved the business.

“I stepped back from the marketing role and Trevor now manages it. He is doing a better job because he’s a numbers guy who can devote more time to it and really take it to another level,” Kehler says.

Where Kehler hadn’t been comfortable with futures and options trading but also didn’t have time to learn more about them, Weins has been able to dig in and learn how to use these tools to improve their results. 

Today, Kehler and Wiens meet on a weekly basis to discuss what’s going on in the markets and to finalize marketing decisions.

“I would have to say that one of our biggest faults as farmers is thinking we have to do everything ourselves,” Kehler says. “I’ve learned that I have to trust people, put them where they are strong and give them the tools to be successful. Our farm is much better off with good people around than it would be with me trying to do everything myself.”

Kehler had learned about marketing grain the same way he’d learned how to grow it — starting at a young age, he watched and worked alongside his father and grandfather. 

When he became a partner in the business, Kehler Farms Ltd., the need to make marketing decisions was limited because grain was sold through the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and potatoes were grown on contract.

“Starting to market our own grain added a different dynamic to the business but it’s been a vast improvement,” Kehler says about the CWB being eliminated 10 years ago. “We’ve never looked back.”

Now, the Kehlers grow potatoes, corn, edible beans, wheat, oats and ryegrass on 6,700 acres in southern Manitoba. They negotiate a fixed-price potato production contract each year but market the other crops on an ongoing basis.

The marketing plan is strategically focused on managing storage, risk and cash flow. Investing in increased storage capacity over time has made a significant difference.

“Dad liked to have the bare minimum amount of storage and I found that forced us to make price decisions that we wouldn’t have had to make otherwise,” Kehler says. “Now we build bins every year and my goal is to have enough storage for a good crop so that I can sit back and make good decisions.”

A Call Away

Jordan and Jennifer Lindgren, Lindgren Farms Ltd., Norquay, Sask., 2018 Saskatchewan Outstanding Young Farmers

Like the Kehlers, Jordan Lindgren also made the decision to seek external marketing expertise to improve his business. But instead of onboarding a full-time employee, he chose to hire a grain marketing firm and start working with a market advisor.

Lindgren, who farms 14,000 acres of canola, wheat, peas and oats with Jennifer and their four young children, was previously making most of the marketing decisions himself.

He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a diploma in agriculture before joining his uncle and father in the farm business, purchasing their shares when they retired in 2014 and 2017. 

In the beginning, it was a combination of learnings from university and lessons from the previous generation that shaped Lindgren’s marketing plan. “After a few years, I got a feeling for when we need cash flow, what we have for storage, and when we have employees to move grain,” he says.

Lindgren was using a variety of tools to manage risk, including a trading account for futures and options contracts. To stay informed, he attended market outlook meetings hosted by a local retailer and subscribed to newsletters from a few market analysts.

But as the business grew, so did management responsibilities. Lindgren decided it was time to work with someone who is solely focused on commodity markets.

The grain marketing firm he chose provides daily market reports by email but the service he values most is one-on-one consulting with an advisor.

“It’s constant communication,” Lindgren explains. “We talk every other day by phone to discuss what’s happening and what they’re expecting to see in the market. They’re constantly watching and analyzing the data, which is what farmers don’t have time to do.”

While hiring a market advisor doesn’t remove all of the risk, Lindgren has learned that it can take a significant weight off his shoulders. The stress of trying to guess where the market is going, making sure grain is being priced and keeping track of when it needs to be delivered has been lifted, he says.

The advisor uses real costs of production and other cash-flow information in order to make customized recommendations, which Lindgren sees as an added benefit because it makes farmers take a sharper look at their profitability and make more educated marketing decisions.

Looking ahead, he plans to continue working with an advisor long-term. He finds the service to be inexpensive relative to the potential return.

“Hiring a market advisor is a cheap way to protect your bottom line,” Lindgren now thinks. “Nobody can pick the high all the time but they have a pretty good idea of what’s happening in the market. They are certainly making me far more money than they are costing me.”

A Sharper Focus

Gurpreet Lidder, Lidder Produce Ltd., Keremeos, B.C., 2022 B.C./Yukon Outstanding Young Farmer

While the Kehlers and Lindgrens have found success by involving more people in their marketing efforts, the opposite is true for Gurpreet Lidder at Lidder Produce Ltd.

Lidder is a second-generation fruit farmer from the Similkameen Valley, who primarily grows apples and cherries, along with some peaches, pears and nectarines. 

When he graduated from the University of British Columbia and joined the family business, his parents were selling their produce at a roadside stand and through a local co-op. He soon steered the company in a different direction, breaking away from the co-op and marketing directly to small retail chains in the Lower Mainland.

After a period of steady growth, Lidder further executed his vertical integration strategy by building a packing facility in 2018. The expansion opened the doors for him to market to larger commercial retailers and start exporting.

“Now we can take our product, pack it and sell it,” he says. “We’ve been successful in eliminating the middlemen, like brokers and wholesalers, and going directly to retailers.”

A weekly request-for-quotation (RFQ) process is used to sell Lidder’s fruit to Loblaws and Sobeys. (Annual fixed price contracts are a thing of the past. Not unlike other farm commodities, environmental factors can significantly have an impact on market prices.)

With smaller retailers, such as Langley Farm Market which has six metro Vancouver locations, Lidder is usually pricing contracts month by month.

But Lidder remains focused on volume of product, not volume of retailers.

“I’ve always learned that 80 per cent of business is repeat business,” he explains. “I focus on less than 10 retail customers, trying to figure out their needs and how to better cater to them. I think as long as we continue to do that, we will continue to earn their business.”

Lidder also values long-term relationships over short-term gains. He does not overcharge retailers when there is a product shortage and in return, he has found that they will be fair to him when there is excess on the market.

While the farm has grown to 240 acres and the distribution channels have changed over time, the roadside stand where Lidder and his siblings grew up working still plays an important role. 

Primarily due to location, the stand attracts passionate foodies who drive hours specifically to purchase excellent quality fruit.

Lidder uses them as a test market and has learned he can accurately predict consumer trends based on their adoption of new varieties.

Long term, his goal is to continue growing and keep the focus on quality.

“If you grow high-quality fruit, you can differentiate yourself and you’ll always get paid well,” Lidder says. “Too many people focus on packaging or marketing strategies and forget that product quality is most important.” 

The post Strategic marketing appeared first on Country Guide.

Then there’s salmon. Butter. Salt. “Salt is one of the most important ingredients in cooking,” she says. “I use Diamond kosher salt — it’s a slightly different flake that melts better into food and it’s not as salty; and a finishing salt, like Maldon.”

Then, onions. Red, yellow, Spanish and Cipollini. The French cooking she was trained in, says Waverman, relies on mirepoix, or a flavour base of onions, carrots and celery in many dishes. You can dispense with the carrots if what you’re cooking doesn’t need a sweet profile, she says — but never the onions.

Then, lemon rind. Or better yet, lime, which, she says, can add a surprising twist to familiar dishes.

Last but not least — garlic. “I love garlic,” Waverman says, with passion. “It should be fresh and Canadian, and I want it organic. In our garden we grow our own garlic but we never grow enough. You’d be surprised at how much garlic you can use over a winter.

“If you take mushrooms and sauté them and grate a garlic clove over the mushrooms, it just pops the flavour of the mushrooms. Or, for a simple pasta, olive oil, garlic, salt, parmesan cheese — you can’t go wrong.”

It’s a measure of Waverman’s skill that the simple listing of ingredients can become a mouthwatering spell, and it explains why she is among the most widely read food sources in the country. She may tell Canadians what they need to know, but she spices it with what will make them happy.

A food journalist, educator, columnist for the Globe & Mail and author of eight cookbooks, Waverman has been cooking for decades —- and she’s not done. Recently, she shared a photo of a gleaming leek strata on Instagram. She’d whipped it up for a six-person brunch.

“It was big enough for eight or 10 people, but we finished it,” she laughs. “I was hoping I’d have leftovers.”

Since the beginning of her food career, Waverman’s goal has been to make food approachable. She’s always, she says, tried to get people to “go into the kitchen and cook and not worry about it.”

In her column for the Globe & Mail, Waverman likes to answer readers’ questions, and offer cooking techniques and home kitchen tips or recipes using seasonal ingredients.

But she doesn’t think she’ll write another cookbook.

“If I have information I want to pass on, I can do it on Instagram or Twitter,” she says. “But you can’t ever say never, because who knows?”

Local food

Waverman lives in Toronto, and has endless appreciation for the Toronto food scene — its restaurants and creatives, and its farmers markets.

She says food culture changes constantly, but differently in different places. “In Toronto, you might see changes that you’ll never see in northern Saskatchewan,” she says. 

What she’s noticed in Toronto during the pandemic is a shift back to home cooking, a return to families sharing meals, and a growing appetite for simpler recipes and meals — recipes that “pack a punch but don’t require 22 steps to get there.”

Cooking like this takes its cues from the seasons and what’s locally available, and it allows individual flavours to shine. 

Simple, seasonal cooking has been Waverman’s bailiwick from the beginning, and it’s what helps lend her recipes their comfortable air. That’s down to her childhood in Scotland, she says, where there were few restaurants but everyone could get excellent local fish and beef. 

Waverman’s grandmother owned a restaurant in Glasgow, and her mother ran a cooking school and kitchen shop in Toronto. Waverman herself initially trained as a journalist, but gravitated back to the food world when her family moved to London, England, and she enrolled at the famous Cordon Bleu Cookery School. Later, she opened her own cooking school. Her cookbooks, including the award-winning Home for Dinner and A Matter of Taste, followed.

She believes food writers have a responsibility to highlight seasonal, local and fresh ingredients. 

“You can use spices from other countries, flavouring agents and all the rest of it, but (otherwise) we should be using what we grow here,” she says. “It drives me crazy when I see an article about asparagus in November. Any asparagus that’s available is coming in from Chile, Mexico, Peru. They’re good products, but why would we buy these when we’ve got everything local going on here?”

When Ontario asparagus comes into season in the spring, Waverman eats it “just about every day,” she says, for the six weeks it’s available.

Seasonal boundaries have blurred with the rise in local greenhouse-grown produce, which is a great thing, she says, although not attainable for every wallet. But when tomatoes are off-season, she says, they’re better canned anyway.

It sometimes surprises even Waverman what ingredients can be found locally, like the black French lentils she once purchased at the supermarket, which turned out to be Canadian; now, she only buys Canadian lentils.

“I spent a little time in Saskatchewan watching the harvesting for lentils, chickpeas, all these pulse crops. We grow so much,” she says. “I think people use them more now than they did 10 to 20 years ago, and it’s a trend I’m glad to see is growing, because they’re healthy and it supports our farmers — and we grow very good ones.”

Waverman loves plant-based food, but she’s also here for sustainably-grown meat; one recipe she published last year was for beef Wellington, a vintage puff pastry-encased beef tenderloin served in a boozy sauce.

And recently, she says, she sampled a “very fine” locally raised heritage chicken that was rich, succulent and somehow more “chickeny” than anything she’d ever found in the supermarket.

The farmers responsible for this greatness, says Waverman, aren’t doing it for the money. “They’re doing it out of love and passion,” she says. “That’s why going to a farmers market should be a part of everybody’s life — to see what is being grown here.”

Waverman’s next project is to refurbish her website, she says, so she can post recipes — but never ads — which will keep her connected to the community. And she hopes soon to be cooking more strata for six. “I love entertaining, having people over,” she says. “It’s terrific to be back to this again.”

The post Food writer’s focus on local gets consumer attention appeared first on Country Guide.

“People were interested in what I was eating, and the fact that we had grown it,” Thatcher recalls. “That’s what gave me the insight into the fact that people want to connect to farms and farmers and know more.” 

It’s been almost 12 years since she left teaching to build the business, and now Thatcher Farms has a butcher shop, farm market, and a bakery and kitchen, in addition to the farm itself. It’s located east of Guelph and north of Fergus, Ont., where Dana and husband Adam own 140 acres of land and rent another 350 to grow crops. They raise and sell the meat from beef cattle, poultry and lamb and employ 20 local people. 

While the pandemic dampened the agri-tourism side of the business — the Thatchers usually offer pick-your-own strawberries in spring and pumpkins in the fall — they also have a number of other attractions like a corn maze and, in summer 2021, they developed a sunflower trail where visitors can cut their own bouquets. 

In 2022, they’re adding another business called Barn Swallow Fields that includes a new, barn-like venue that people can rent for weddings, live music shows, field dinners, reunions, corporate gatherings and other events. The website is already up and running. 

The Thatchers have three children ranging in age from 10 to 14. Thomas, William and Sophie all pitch in and help with the family businesses.

Building from nothing

When they started out, Thatcher says they had no money, and her teaching salary often went to buy things like hog feed at the time. Initially, Adam was finishing hogs and had a hay and straw business. 

“In the early 2000s, the commodity prices were so terrible, we knew we had to do something different,” she says. That’s when they started selling meat — beef, lamb, chicken and pork — as well as eggs out of the back of their house. Later, they added turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

They were also a bit naïve, and eager to please customers. So, they were open seven days a week, which, at the time, meant Dana would have to do things like interrupt feeding Sophie to deal with a customer who had come up the lane. 

In the early days, they grew and made everything themselves. Now, while they still supply the meat, they also source from 15 to 20 local suppliers who provide a range of items from jams and sauces to pickles and other preserves. 

Being a first-generation farm family, they’ve learned, has both its upsides and downsides. 

“We sometimes wish that we had family involved to share the workload and to provide some financial help,” she says. “But at the end of the day, the struggle is ours, the choices are ours, and Adam and I make the decisions with- out having to get approval from another family member.”

The couple have different skill sets — Adam loves agriculture and farming and graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. Dana says she’s the “people person” and takes care of the retail side of the business. All of their marketing is done on social media — mostly Instagram and some Facebook. 

“It’s loads and loads of hard work, but the magical piece is that we’re working together toward our shared goals,” she says. 

Networking crucial

Thatcher attributes the farm’s success to their commitment to staying interested and curious about trends. Having patience and a willingness to network are two traits that she has also learned to highly value as a business person. 

“You have to be open to putting yourself out there,” she says, and if you’re new to value adding, you also need to recognize that you can’t possibly know it all. The decision to join the Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association, she stresses, was life changing. 

Any time issues that have come up in the business, whether about the sunflowers, fertilizer recommendations or getting a good accountant, the supportive people in the association are always willing to take their call and share advice and experience, she says. 

Another organization that they have relied on over the years is the Outstanding Young Farmers — a Canada-wide program that recognizes the best and brightest in the farming business. The Thatchers won in 2013 and received a lifetime membership to the organization. 

Being open to people also helps when there are no boundaries between the business and home life. In fact, Dana says that they have a sign at the road end of the lane that says “Welcome to our farm and our home.” 

They now keep regular business hours, but sometimes they get drop-ins. 

“People show up during our off-hours looking to buy our products — but then, we have to remind ourselves that we love what we do, and are grateful for our customers,” she says. 

Hire good people

Besides having a loyal staff that goes the extra kilometre for them, the Thatchers have excellent support from, and they work closely with, their accountant, lawyer and banker — who understand them and their goals. 

“We have a really great relationship with all of them — we worked at it over the years, and it means a lot, knowing we can ask for their support and guidance,” she says. 

When they started out, they didn’t have a business plan, and like many entrepreneurial startups, Thatcher Farms grew out of “passion and necessity.” 

But by 2014, as sales increased and they hired more staff, they decided to take CTEAM (Canadian Total Excellence in Agricultural Management), a two-year business program that helped them learn while developing their own strategic and operational business plans. The program helped them network with other farmers in taking courses, and the connection with the teachers made them more disciplined in their own thinking. 

“It really helped us home in on who we were and where we wanted to be,” Dana says, adding that having solid plans and greater knowledge gave her more confidence in dealing with the bank. 

“Our banker said I was the first person to ever ask about ratios,” she says. “It’s important to learn and understand ratios to be able to know where you stand in terms of profits and losses,” she says, adding that her banker now helps with the actual number crunching. 

Thriving through the pandemic

Thatcher says that business was booming through the COVID-19 pandemic, and she credits having an e-commerce platform up and running for the two years leading up to March 2020 for keeping them afloat. 

“We would not have successfully manoeuvred through it without that platform,” she says. The online shop offers products ranging from five-pound boxes of grilling steaks and garlic-seasoned lamb sausages to all kinds of jams and preserves to fruit and meat pies to ready-to-eat meals like chili and meatloaf. They even sell mitts and handbags from the hides of the cattle they have slaughtered. 

In November, they re-opened their farm market to in-store customers. During the pandemic, they used the market as a warehouse and put coolers on its porch so customers could order and pre-pay online, then safely pick up their purchases outdoors. 

“That was our strategy right from the beginning — we didn’t want to have any part of policing people coming into the store,” she says, adding that her customers were comfortable with the situation and grateful for the convenience. 

Given the amount of growth and diversification they’ve experienced over the past few years, the Thatchers now plan to take some time to stay the course. 

Says Dana, “We’re really happy with where we are — we’d like to take some time to enjoy it.”

The post Value adding, with a flourish appeared first on Country Guide.

In other words, his produce farm was a lot like a lot of other startups — a lot of energy was going in a lot of directions, but they were always bumping up against the same bottlenecks.

On the plus side, Crisp Organics, the farm Vogler started with his mom, Willy Arkesteyn-Vogler, in 2009, had developed a following. Vogler had a regular income and satisfied customers.

But he was burned out from managing direct-to-consumer sales. 

“I will miss some of those interactions (and) opportunities to build,” Vogler now says. “But it made sense for us to streamline.”

Five years ago, Vogler started selling a portion of his crop to Discovery Organics, a Vancouver-based distributor that specializes in sourcing organic produce from small family farms. The model proved successful for his farm and he steadily increased the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables that he sold wholesale. 

It can feel like a big step for small producers, who often favour the direct-to-consumer model, establishing CSA programs, setting up booths at farmers markets or selling on the farm. 

Besides, going direct has actually has a lot going for it. The demand for local foods has made it easier for growers to connect with customers. Direct marketing also offers advantages, including higher retained net income as a share of gross income thanks to higher prices on smaller quantities.

But there’s also no question that direct-to-consumer sales are more labour-intensive. More than that, they can also force the farm to produce more products so it has enough of what the consumer wants to keep them coming back. It all puts increased stress on producers, and it’s these stresses that are leading growers to form partnerships with distributors to sell at least a portion of their harvest.

Exploring the options

A distributor may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Combining wholesale and retail strategies can help reduce risks, according to a Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture report, Guide to Marketing Channel Selection. Distributors can help diversify income and provide consistent demand, and they can cut labour that would otherwise be going into setting up market booths or packing multiple CSA boxes.

The distributor sector, meanwhile, is evolving too. For instance, Nicola Irving signed on with SPUD as early as 2009 to sell Irving’s Farm Fresh pork products. SPUD is an online supermarket that delivers products grown and raised on Canadian farms. 

Prior to working with a distributor, Irving, who raises Berkshire pigs in Round Hill, Alta., sold almost all of her sausage, bacon, ham and other pork products at farmers markets and through an on-farm store. She appreciated the higher margins for direct-to-consumer sales and the fact that customers paid at the time of purchase, but she also recognized that a distributor relationship could have its benefits.

“What SPUD, and the other places that work with small producers do, is ask for our price and see if it will work for them to mark it up and make a profit and not outprice it in the market,” she explains.

For Irving, there were two immediate benefits. “There was no haggling over the price,” she says, “and it also expanded our reach.”

Some customers still want direct, she finds. “Maybe they want to come to the farm store and see what else we’ve got, or order a whole pig for the freezer instead of a few pork chops.”

During the decade she has been selling through SPUD, Irving has also signed on with other small distributors, and she notes these relationships proved especially beneficial during the pandemic. 

At the same time that farmers markets were shutting down and customers were sheltering in place, leading to declines in direct-to-consumer sales, online grocery shopping spiked and distributors needed more product than ever.

“What we were supplying (to our distributors) pretty much doubled overnight,” Irving says. “We lost sales in some of our face-to-face retail but we were selling more through these other channels.”

Same farm, different model

At Crisp Organics, transitioning from direct-to-consumer markets to wholesale helped Vogler to cut back from 50 different types of fruits and vegetables to just 10 staple crops. Growing only beets, carrots, parsnips, celery, celery root, broccoli, leeks, corn, beans and new potatoes is less stressful and labour-intensive than keeping up with a more diversified crop mix.

His cultivated acreage hasn’t changed but the transition has allowed Vogler to increase mechanization, cut back on staffing (and the time it took to recruit and train new workers) and spend fewer hours selling his produce.

“We started out growing a crop here and there (for distributors) and then we increased the number of crops we were offering Discovery Organics,” Vogler explains. “This year was our fifth year (selling to distributor) and it was the first time we felt comfortable moving away from our other sales channels.”

As of 2021, Vogler is selling 100 per cent of his fresh produce through distributors. 

Brody Irvine, purchaser for Discovery Organics, says he has talked to a number of producers who prefer working with distributors because it allows them to shift their business to less intensive production and sales methods. Irvine believes that wholesale markets not only allow diversification, they may also be more predictable than farmers markets and restaurant sales. 

“Wholesale markets are pretty stable … and we can tell a grower with relative confidence that if they grow 1,000 pounds of green beans every week through the summer, you can count on having a market,” Irvine explains. “You get a more reliable, consistent movement of your product.”

A fit for diversification?

While there are significant advantages to working with distributors, not all producers are well-suited to the model. If you’re just starting out on a diversification scheme, for instance, you may face a hurdle. Most distributors, including Discovery Organics, want to partner with producers who have several years of experience to ensure they can deliver sufficient quantities of produce or proteins. Quality is important too. 

In fact, Justin Vanderploeg, owner/operator of Two EE’s Organics in Surrey, B.C., believes that the field-grown produce he sells through several different distributors has to be even better than the produce sold at local farmers markets.

“When you’re selling to distributors, you’re not there when a customer takes it off the table so your quality control has to be a lot tighter … your produce has to speak for itself,” he explains. At the farmers markets, by contrast, “the customer who comes to the table is willing to hear your story that it looks a bit different because of X, Y, Z but it still tastes super sweet. Through a distributor, you don’t have that opportunity to sell.”

Vogler had a lot of experience growing produce when he started supplying fresh vegetables to Discovery Organics but he was unable to grow cauliflower that met strict standards for the wholesale market. 

“We had to get comfortable grading out products we wouldn’t normally have to grade out,” he says. “We might be able to bring a small cauliflower to the farmers market … but in the grocery store, they are buying cauliflower by count and need them to be a consistent size and colour.”

Selling to distributors means that producers must also be able to comply with labelling requirements that aren’t needed for direct-to-consumer sales. For Irving, it meant all products had to be processed in a commercial kitchen and list product information, allergens and ingredients. 

The Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture report notes that the grading, packing and delivery requirements can make working with distributors more stressful. Moreover, distributors can be demanding when it comes to prices, deadlines and logistics.

For Irving, who still generates 60 per cent of her revenue from farmers markets, on-farm sales and restaurant accounts, working with distributors has become an essential part of her business model. The extra work, she believes, is worth it.

“(Distributors) are reaching customers that I couldn’t reach,” she says. “If you want to service more customers and reach more customers than you’d ordinarily reach, it’s a good way to expand your business.”

Five questions to ask distributors

If you’re thinking of linking up with a distributor, here are five questions to ask before signing on the dotted line:

1. WHAT ARE THE GAPS IN LOCAL SUPPLY?

Every winter, Justin Vanderploeg of Two EE’s Organics schedules calls with distributors to determine which crops he should plant in the spring. Knowing that orders for kale are down but there are limited supplies of hot peppers ensures that the crops he plants will be sold at harvest.

2. WHAT VOLUMES CAN YOU TAKE?

Just like it’s important to know what to plant, knowing how much to plant matters, too. There’s no reason to plant four acres of beets if there’s no market. Distributors know what — and how much of — different produce and proteins their customers want. Understanding standard quantities will help you plan your crop mix and also help you determine if your operation is large enough to play in that part of the market.

3. WHAT ARE THE INDUSTRY STANDARD PACK OUTS AND GRADES?

Brody Irvine of Discovery Organics encourages growers to investigate exactly how their produce should be delivered to distributors. “Certain wholesalers have specific preferences,” so ask distributors about everything from box size, material and weight to grading requirements. The easier you can make their jobs, the more likely they’ll be to place subsequent orders.

4. WHAT ARE THE TERMS?

You need to understand the payment terms. While “net 30” is common, some distributors have longer terms — and not all pay on time. Irving estimates that she writes off at least one bad debt every year and she looks for warning signs, like late payments, that signal a wholesale client might be sinking. 

5. CAN YOU PROVIDE REFERENCES?

Don’t be afraid to ask distributors for references and then call growers to ask about their experiences. “Some distributors will make big promises upfront and, when the (purchase order) comes through, it’s for half the amount you discussed,” Irvine says. Talking to growers with established relationships can help you avoid entering into problematic relationships. 

The post The deal with food distributors appeared first on Country Guide.

Horseradish has been around forever too, although it’s been nearly 20 years since it has been cropped in this area along the north shore of Lake Erie. The agronomics haven’t changed, though. Horseradish loves the sandy soil and warm summers of Norfolk, which make for perfect growing conditions to yield the long thin roots that give the condiment its legendary heat.

What has changed, though, is the market.

Maybe you think of horseradish as something your grandma put on the roast beef. But now, it’s being used on burgers, in potato salads and so much more.

And another big thing has changed too. That’s the business strategy back on the farm.

Horseradish is a niche crop. A quick trip to your local grocery store will likely find one jar or another — probably a store brand product from industrial-type horseradish manufacturers. Although horseradish is associated with a number of global cuisines, you’ll find nothing too artisanal, nothing too fun.

Hmmm … that sounds like opportunity knocking.

Dennis’ Horseradish has been around since 1960 when Dennis Gyorffy founded the company. With wonderful initial success, he was able to get jars selling across Ontario from Windsor up to Ottawa before selling the business 20 years later to the Hantz family, who really honed and polished the recipe.

In fact, through subsequent transitions in 2008 and then again in 2020 to the current owners, Rick Hantz has stayed on, still acting as the all important recipe keeper. 

In 2020, three Marks — Healy, Whitmore and Vandenbosch — arrived on the scene, acquiring Dennis’ Horseradish and aiming to put the heat back in its business plan.

Coming in with a strategic, brand-based focus, the three Marks acquired a firm grasp on the marketplace and developed some clear objectives. So while their’s may be a story of producing and selling horseradish, the learnings can apply to any off-the-wall idea or food product coming to market.

#goaldigging

For the three Marks, it’s full steam ahead. They’ve got new growing partners, diversified grain farmers Lindsay Menich and Drew Patterson, to bring production and the end product as close to one another as possible.

The farm is located right in Norfolk, which is important not only to ensure the horseradish is as fresh as possible when it hits the processing plant, but also to strengthen the brand. The crop needs roots. The company does too.

“That makes a huge difference,” says Mark Vandenbosch (CCO, CFO and co-owner). “If you don’t have a good product, it (your marketing) is not going to matter.”

For Vandenbosch, who has farming roots but has spent much of his life in the business world (including as a marketing professor and acting dean of the IVEY Business School at Western University), bringing an off-the-wall artisanal product like this to market is about planning, and it’s about making sure there’s an appetite for it.

He emphasizes that agriculture is a big-volume industry, meaning that you’d better make sure there’s a market for your idea and test out whether there’s a market for it prior to diving in and growing a bunch of product.

For the three Marks, Norfolk’s unique growing conditions, an increased interest in artisanal condiments and a lack of artisanal horseradish in the marketplace presented a potential opportunity. 

So it’s time to talk about goal-setting. One goal, as you’ve read, is production-oriented. It’s to bring the product closer to its roots. But on top of that, Dennis’s also has one very lofty goal: get into every major grocery store chain in Canada, plus a growing list of foodie shops.

At this point, the company is well on their way. Their horseradish is in 44 Sobeys locations and 42 Foodlands as well as several other single locations of major chains and many other artisan markets.

Hot pressure and hot horseradish

You know what they say: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the horseradish jar (or something like that). Like any niche crop, farming horseradish has its challenges. First, you have to stress the root to get the spicy heat (the hotter the better), but you have to know exactly how far you can go. To state the obvious, stressing it too much and killing the plan is hardly helpful.

Luckily, Menich says, the resiliency of horseradish is one of the best things about it.

They know tobacco and ginseng too, so they know the feeling of farming with risk. Says Lindsay Menich: “With the stress of losing ginseng to frost in the spring and tobacco to frost in the fall, or losing either to disease… it’s nice to grow something that seems to live through anything.” 

What about specialty equipment and treatments, though? “John Deere isn’t going to make any horseradish equipment,” says Vandenbosch, laughing. “But a potato harvester? With a few tweaks, that will work.”

Luckily, as Menich points out, Norfolk County is full of farmers who specialize in niche crops and because of that, they know how to do innovation. Leaning into the community has been a big help. 

“We are very lucky to live and farm in Norfolk County,” Menich says. “There are a lot of innovative, specialized equipment vendors we have been working with to improve existing equipment … The knowledge base of our agronomists is spectacular and we have a strong relationship with all of our input providers.”

Of course, working with one grower comes with plenty of advantages (such as more control over the end product and creating a great relationship) but it does involve some risk management. Luckily, Dennis’ does have relationships with other growers (as do Menich and Patterson, who regularly network with them for advice) as a contingency plan. 

While all is well and good now, it begs the question: What if the market becomes flooded? Vandenbosch seems unfazed. His business savvy is evident. Pointing out that almost all the other horseradish growers in Canada are in southwestern Ontario because of the sandy soil, he says new entrants are likely to be partners, not competitors. After all, it would be risky business to start up another horseradish brand so close by.

Now we market

So you have a great product, you’ve assembled an awesome team (that’s key) and now it’s time to get this thing out there. For Dennis’s that has started with a great website. They’ve taken the time to write up the farm’s history and tell the story, add recipes and a slick point of sale that allows people to purchase product online. According to Vandenbosch, most of their sales come through the inbound message box on their website. Its success is impressive. They’ve had inquiries not just from Canadian companies but Mexican, Thai and Korean ones as well. 

From there, Dennis’s has pushed out their product on social media as well as through traditional media. A quick Instagram search finds videos of one of the other Marks (i.e. Healy) doing recipe challenges and having fun with the product. They’ve appealed to the foodie crowd with clear imagery of tasty burgers topped with horseradish and other artisanal condiments they’ve expanded into, like their signature horseradish seafood sauce and mustard. 

Most recently, they’ve added a FeastON certification to their list of accolades through the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance — a program that tracks one’s use of local ingredients and authenticates that you aren’t just “local washing” your marketing. It’s also a great way to be seen by highly engaged foodies on social media to boot.

All is fair in love and horseradish

So it seems, Dennis’ Horseradish is well on its way to being the next hot thing in artisanal condiments. According to Vandenbosch, farmers are often price takers, meaning they take commodity price for what they’re growing. The nice thing about getting into artisanal products however, he notes, is that it gives the team the opportunity to flip that model on its head.

It may be a lot more work on the marketing and product development end of things but there’s no real market there yet, meaning price point is a little more flexible. All you need is a great product and a great story to go along with it. Dennis’s, Vandenbosch says, will build on both.

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