California Farmer flys to Midwest to sell his oranges! Today April 5, 2008
Cindy Huguley
Please help me locate retail outlets for a farmer from Terra Bella
California who has flown into Detroit to sell
4 pallets of oranges in 4lbs. bags at $5.00 retail. Wow. What is going
on with the distribution chain in the United States?
I knew my life had changed when I got a call from a stranger this
morning on my cell phone saying someone told her that I might be able
to help a California Sustainable farmer who had a wonderful fresh crop
of seedless naval oranges
that he couldn't afford to sell wholesale because of the squeeze in
the supply chain has almost completely eliminated any profit that he
could make.
How many of you got on a plane this week and hawked your services to a
group of strangers in a different state
because you couldn't make a living wage in the state you lived in. Oh,
wait-that's the United States on a number of
levels. (Save the economic debate/tongue lashing for another day).
You all live in Ann Arbor/SE Michigan, anybody got any ideas or
contacts?
Cindy Huguley
Kim Bayer
andrew...@producestation.com
Bob Sparrow at Sparrow Market in AA.
They should both recognize my name if you tell them I told you about
them.
I'll buy 2 bags myself.
:)
Kim
Kim Bayer
-----------------------------------------
k...@thefarmersmarketer.com
http://thefarmersmarketer.com
734.998.0546
Victoria
So how did this turn out? What happened to the oranges?
Victoria
On Apr 5, 1:50 pm, Kim Bayer <kimba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Andrew Gorsuch is the general manager of the Produce Station here in AA.
Cindy Huguley
We had a family medical issue to address the day after the Expo, so I
have been out
of pocket for a week. Well, he sold some of the oranges at the
Foodways Expo in BG
that Sunday, and we contacted the local news station, the newspapers
and I sent out
a few contacts at the NYT and WSJ- I think a local paper is going to
run a story,
but I was amazed at the lack of interest from the local media- (even
the camera man at
Channel 13 thought it was a great story)....
I'd passed on the information everyone gave me, thank you! Right now
the Bench Farm
in Curtice Ohio has the oranges for sale at their retail market, but
wow, doesn't this
highlight the issues with our food supply chain? It's also reinforced
just how unfamiliar
most growers are with the whole concept of marketing and sales...(and
to the growers in the group,
I'm referring to growers here that have been traditional commercial
farmers and are transitioning to
direct market farmers..)
I'm following up with Steve this week, if anyone wants to check out
his web site
I've included it below. I'm going to send out a separate note to the
group on
some observations I've made to try and get some feedback from the group.
Steve's web site is:
The oranges are really wonderful!
Cindy
Marija Freeland
Marija