The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) provided intensive, land-based training in food safety and marketing education to 63 aspiring and beginning farmers on our 100 acre organic farm in Salinas, California.
This included classroom instruction (until the COVID-19 shutdown) and field-based assistance, buyer outreach and education, proactive buyer-farmer matchmaking, and assistance in developing and executing marketing and food safety plans. Market research and marketing curricula and tools be developed and deployed to achieve the proposed objectives.
The project addressed marketing risks faced by beginning and socially-disadvantaged (BSD) farmers, who are primarily Spanish-speaking immigrant farmworkers striving to establish their own organic farms. Participants were either enrolled in a 10-month farmer education course to plan their farm launch or are already incubating farm enterprises on ALBA land.
Educational activities included 6 workshops, 1 buyer / seller event, and daily on-on-one consultations to 63 pre-launch or start-up farms on marketing and food safety compliance. Growers gained a better understanding of how to mitigate risks by assessing appropriate marketing channels, develop marketing strategies for launching or scaling-up operations, and learn about food safety fundamentals and compliance. Over 30 made sales to new clients, of whom 24 are doing repeat sales to these clients. In all, 51 were food safety certified.
The project proved a huge step forward for our marketing service strategy. Since ALBA shut down its food hub in 2017, farmers have been selling to distributors, mainly Coke farm. They have been a great partner but remember that they take a 10% fee before selling into wholesale which marks up the price before retail does the same. Our strategy is to help them develop local clientele to whom they can deliver direct. This will enable them to sidestep cooling, marketing and logistics fees to get a larger share of the consumer dollar. But it has been difficult. Buyers are reluctant to purchase produce from multiple small-scale growers because logistics, receiving and grower accounting are more costly. The fact that many of our farmers don't speak English can also be an impediment.
In addition to updating the marketing curriculum, ALBA hired a Production and Marketing Advisor, which has made all the difference. Just one year ago, 80-90% of crops grown on our farm went to Coke and a few other local distributors. Now, Manny sends a weekly crop availability list to 26 buyers and over 90% of our start-up farms have made sales to new clients. Granted, they are still 'dipping' their toes into unfamiliar waters and relying heavily on Coke, but we expect the diversification of markets to jump in 2021 and the coming years, driving family farm success.
The project also conducted education and technical assistance to help farmers comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act. This is no small task as it requires farmers to adapt their practices, expend additional costs for materials, and to monitor and document compliance practices. During the project 51 start-up farmers were helped in obtaining or renewing their food safety certification, which is not only a legal requirement but a pre-requisite for selling into markets.