Purple Pitchfork
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • About Chris
  • Farming Resources from Chris
  • Donate

Value is Subjective

9/4/2014

0 Comments

 
The price you need for your products is based on your cost of production and marketing. But the price you get for your product comes down to value.

And value is subjective. In my first year at Rock Spring Farm, I couldn’t get $1.00 per pound for our tomatoes at the Decorah, Iowa, farmers market – but I could sell exactly the same tomatoes for  $2.50 a pound in Rochester, Minnesota! The same tomato, sold in the same way, had much more value for my Rochester customers. Guess where I sold my tomatoes?

I also found that I could sell my salad mix at a higher price than my competitors in Rochester. Why? Because it looked better in the bag and lasted longer in the refrigerator than the other salad greens at the market. We consistently nailed the production on salad greens, and followed it up with great post-harvest handling. Same market, same crop, but with a significantly higher value.

If you aren’t getting the price you need for your products, you’ve got four choices:
  1. Reduce your cost of production, marketing, and distribution, so that you can charge a lower price for your current value proposition;
  2. Decrease your value proposition;
  3. Increase your value proposition; or
  4. Find new customers.

To make money farming, you absolutely must match your value proposition to your customers.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Sponsors

    img_purple pitchfork_sponsor_vermont compost

    Archives

    2016
    2015

    2014
    2013
    2012
    2011

    Announcement
    Business Philosophy
    Business Strategy
    CSA
    Entrepreneurism
    Farm Equipment
    Farm Finances
    Farming Techniques
    Farm Labor
    Farm Systems
    Farm Wisdom
    Food Safety
    Government
    Health
    Irrigation
    Management
    Marketing
    Organic Certification
    Organic Farming
    Organization
    Pricing
    Records Management
    Scaling Up
    Value

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Picture
Purple Pitchfork is a project of Renewing the Countryside, a non-profit dedicated to rural revitalization and collaborative farmer education that serves as the home for these resources Chris Blanchard created.
Copyright © 2018, Purple Pitchfork. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy