Project Overview
While local agricultural sales in Western Oregon have grown rapidly, the most attractive niches are filling. Previous research indicated that locally-oriented producers tinker with their offerings as they expand. Most changes have focused on crop diversification during the traditional growing season or adding alternative marketing channels. Because expanding production into new months, "season extension", presents greater technical and financial challenges, significant risky but potentially profitable opportunities remain. This project developed and presented season extension produce workshops that were inserted into three existing, well-attended conferences and then organized a full-day field workshop and a half day market tour. The well attended workshops presented detailed information in three areas: 1) Proven season extension production techniques provided by both local and Midwestern U.S. experts; 2) Market opportunities (including the opportunity for specific contacts with buyers) for these season-extended products; 3) Partial budgeting assessment tools for examining both the risk AND profit implications of these opportunities. Both producers and buyers indicated considerable interest in expanding the marketing of season-extended products -- most by just experimenting at the edges but others more aggressively.
Number of Participants: 280
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
There are no promotional materials available for this project.
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
There are no educational materials available for this project.
REPORTS & EVALUATIONS
There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.