The theme of the 2020 AgKnowledge Forum, hosted by Nottawasaga Futures with support from the County of Simcoe’s Economic Development office, Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture, Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario and Holland Marsh Growers Association, was how to market and sell your product.
The well-attended forum offered marketing and sales tips from every angle within the supply chain – producer, wholesale broker, retailer, restaurateur.
Giancarlo Trimarchi described the growth of Vince’s Market from an open-air fruit stand in Sharon, back in 1956, to an independent grocery chain with locations in Sharon, Newmarket, Uxbridge, and Tottenham, now affiliated with Longo’s.
The grocery business in Canada is a “hyper-competitive market,” Trimarchi said, a “concentration of sales… in so few hands.”
While there are numerous independent grocers - both single store operators and small multi-location chains like Farm Boy, Sunripe, Nature’s Emporium, Longo’s and Vince’s Markets - the top three companies (Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro) control the bulk of the grocery business.
It’s a different process for getting a product on the shelves of each type of business.
“Be well-versed on what it takes to get into each,” Trimarchi advised, starting with identifying the “decision-makers.”
In a single independent store, that would be the owner. In a small independent chain, “the owners are still typically heavily involved,” Trimarchi said, but there may be a manager or supervisor who oversees buying.
The bigger the chain, the more complex the structure – and the more difficult to determine the “yes or no people.”
Being well-versed extends to knowing the nature of a store and its customers, whether it already has a similar product on its shelves, what kind of added value a product can provide and how it fits the needs of customers, Trimarchi said.
Be prepared, with details on cost and distribution, including UPC stickers, lists of ingredients, packaged on/best before dates, and traceability; it's also important to show a willingness to offer volume pricing, work with the retailer on promotional discounts, even provide sampling.
“Samplings and demonstrations really do sell products,” he noted.
“A good product should sell itself, but unfortunately shelf space is very limited,” Trimarchi said. “It can be overwhelming to take new listings… A good presentation is sometimes more important than a good product.”
And if a sale is made, the relationship between retailer and producer doesn’t end there. “Final thing is living up to expectations,” Trimarchi said. “We love those people who come in and care about their product… Become a trusted partner, committed to grow each other’s business.”
He was followed by a panel discussion by three local producers, who outlined their paths from production to market: Marianne Den Haan of Sheldon Creek Dairy, Kent Breedon of Breedon’s Maple Syrup, and Vicky Ffrench of Cookstown Greens.
Den Haan described the dairy business as “an absolute rollercoaster ride” with peaks and valleys, created by wins and challenges.
“You have to take the victories and the wins and the joys… then you have to leave the victory party and get right back on it,” she said.
“There are definitely challenges in the industry. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution. Really think outside the box.”
Sheldon Creek Dairy started with glass re-usable bottles – which take “tons of water” and chemicals to clean for re-use. A temporary solution has been to switch to plastic, which has created new issues.
Then there’s distribution. Initially, the Den Haan family spent their days processing the milk and the evenings “hopping on a truck” to make deliveries. “We hated our lives,” Den Haan admitted.
The initial solution was to hire a distribution company, but when the complaints started to come in regarding their perishable products, Sheldon Creek launched its own distribution company two years ago – and the distribution became part of their marketing.
Den Haan advised producers to know their product, the competition, and their customers, “understanding what they need from you.” She added, “Your business is only as good as you are.”
Kent Breedon made his talk “short and sweet – the sap is running!”
Breedon’s Maple Syrup is an offshoot of the family farm, which also includes beef, soy and corn. The Breedons now tap 5,500 trees to produce pure maple syrup and maple products, marketed to grocery stores and specialty shops within a half-hour drive of the farm, with Saturdays at the St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market in Toronto.
“Making the syrup is less work than selling the product,” Breedon said, noting that use of 40-kilometres of tubing to collect the sap, and reverse osmosis in processing have simplified the process. Distribution remains the challenge.
“We decided to do that all ourselves. We’re always able to sell all our products locally,” he said, but then, Breedon’s Maple Syrup has no plans to expand, with land prices being what they are, and increased competition from producers in Quebec.
Instead, Breedon has launched a side business: selling and installing tubing systems for sap collection, to farms all over Ontario.
“It’s actually a bigger business than my maple syrup business.”
Climate change has shifted production northward. Twenty-five years ago, the top syrup producers were in the American midwest. Now, it’s Sault Ste. Marie, where one million trees were tapped this year, Breedon said. And this year’s run “is probably going to be one of our best.”
Cookstown Greens began marketing its certified organic microgreens, root storage crops, leafy greens and herbs directly to chefs back in 1988 – “not a profitable or sustainable model,” noted Vicky Ffrench.
Fifteen years ago, the company began expanding its operations and marketing to specialty shops. Now, Cookstown Greens supplies 50 retailers across Ontario, in addition to chefs and specialty shops, offering 40 year-round products as well as seasonal specialties.
“You want to make sure your growth is within reach. Don’t grow too fast, too hard,” she warned. At this point, the company is doing its own grading, packaging, and deliveries, sending its “high quality, flavourful and consistent produce” as far as Ottawa.
“Our consumers are driving the demand for local and organic,” Ffrench said.
The growing popularity of locally-grown and sustainable products has also generated a new type of food brokerage business.
100KM Foods Inc., wholesale food distributor began in 2007, to provide a connection between farms and restaurateurs. Starting as a single truck making fruit and vegetable deliveries during the summer months, the company now has 30 employees, and delivers a full range of products – including fish and meat – four to five times a week, year-round.
Over 90 vendors and farms now fill a catalogue of both inventoried items and ‘just-in-time” fresh produce, noted Kirsten Yeung. Vendor relations is “working on building our catalogue, finding out what chefs are looking for” and looking for local vendors/producers whose stories can become part of the marketing.
The goal of 100KM Foods, said Evelyn Lurz, is to bring “fresh, high quality food, fresh out of the ground to your plate.” With its connections, distribution model, traceability, focus on unique products and sustainability, and a “small but mighty marketing team,” it fills a niche, selling primarily to food services – but at a cost.
Rather than take a cut of profits, 100KM Foods adds a mark-up to the price, Yeung explained – something that was problematic for the next speakers.
Cravings Fine Foods in Barrie, and The Globe Restaurant in Rosemont highlighted two challenges facing restaurants: availability of local produce and price point.
Because of the climate, at least part of the year, fresh produce needs to be imported into Ontario.
Cravings Fine Foods tries to buy “local” as part of its model: “within Simcoe County first, then Ontario, then Canada,” said Jennifer Long-Allen, but when large quantities are needed year-round, “a lot of time we’re getting our strawberries from Mexico.”
And, she noted, while chefs in Toronto may be willing to pay top dollar and a mark-up to distributors, “I can’t charge $40 a plate in Simcoe County. They are not willing to pay Toronto prices in this market.”
It was a message echoed by Chef Scott McIiwee of The Globe. “We’re always fighting that battle on price,” he said, noting that time is also an issue; as a chef and business operator, he just doesn’t have time to hunt down local producers.
There was plenty of note-taking at the forum, as advice was interspersed with information on the challenges and potential barriers to marketing success, including regulatory requirements – from nutritional labels to sanitation, to Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), the new North American free-trade deal.
First-time Conservative MP Terry Dowdall, Deputy Shadow Minister of Small Business, brought greetings from Ottawa, and a promise that his party would continue to scrutinize the trade deal that will replace NAFTA.
“We have concerns and we always have concerns, because we didn’t see all the documents,” Dowdall told the gathering. “We want to make sure that we continue to hear from the agricultural sector, from farmers, on how these changes affect them.”
The MP also described two Private Member’s Bills, put forward by his party – one proposing changes to the tax regimen for a farm sale to a family member. At present, the tax burden is lighter if a farm is sold to a corporation than to a family member.
A second bill would exempt farmers from paying carbon tax, “in order to be competitive,” said Dowdall. “Instead of the stick approach, we want the carrot… I believe that farmers want to do the right thing. They are the stewards of their land.”
The aim, he said, should be to ensure that Canada’s farms are “not just viable, but profitable.”
“If you want to think of food as non-political, you’re living under a rock,” Den Haan told the forum, sharing the threat made by ‘animal rights activists’ to break into the dairy, and a push to “end animal agriculture by 2050.”
It’s not the only threat facing family farms. Under the new CUSMA, U.S. milk and dairy products will be allowed increasingly into the Canadian market – and Walmart, she noted, “is literally taking over the market,” becoming a ‘super-producer. ‘
She urged consumers to buy Canadian, looking for the “little blue cow” on the label.
With the pressures of CUSMA, and the average age of farmers standing at 56, many dairy farmers are selling off their cows and quota.
“That is just a reality of what’s in the industry now,” Den Haan said. That said, she added, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m an eighth generation farmer.”
“The conversations I’m hearing in this room – we need to keep them going,” said Jody Mott, Executive Director of the Holland Marsh Growers’ Association, who emceed the forum.
