OUTLOOK, Sask. – Marketing vegetables isn’t for part-timers, a Regina wholesaler told growers here.
It’s a full-time job and should be treated that way.
“It is an arena all by itself,” said John Langford of Qu’Appelle Valley Wholesale.
Farms can either market by themselves or band together in groups, but however it’s done, producers need to have their goods sold by a dedicated person.
“You cannot be a successful grower and a successful marketer all in one person,” Langford told people at the Saskatchewan Agriculture vegetable diversification conference held in the heart of the province’s
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“It usually requires one-half of the family to be the marketer and one-half be the grower,” said Langford.
That approach will work for individual farms, but when a number of outfits form a joint marketing company, they should probably hire a professional to represent them.
Langford said developing personal relationships with produce brokers is one of the keys to dealing with big distributors.
“The people we don’t meet are the people we don’t do business with.”
Langford said Saskatchewan producers often have to deal with their local distributors from a weak position because they don’t have the representation their competitors do.
“We get to know them better than we know our local growers,” said Langford, referring to out-of-pro-vince representatives.
Sales in the bag
By using dedicated marketers, producers can line up their sales before the crop comes off the field, Langford said. That avoids the frantic phone call from the grower who suddenly has 100 boxes of broccoli that he wants to sell, who is likely to hear some unfortunate news from the wholesaler.
“We’ve already bought ahead,” said Langford. Other growers have made delivery commitments and there’s no room for other produce.
Langford said wholesalers don’t want to deal with producers who show up in a half-ton truck with three boxes of this, and three boxes of that.
“One hundred box runs are acceptable,” he said.
By leaving the marketing to someone who can concentrate on it, producers help their farms become better businesses, Langford said.
