Have Quality Sales, Need Quality Produce

Wine Country Cuisine wants to team up with several quality oriented, CCOF certified or certifiable Sonoma County vegetable and fruit growers because I cannot keep up with Oliver’s Markets sales growth and demand. Wine Country Cuisine is one of a handful of Sonoma County farmers who can reliably produce and deliver washed, pre-packed, labeled and barcoded, retail ready fresh produce year-round in most years. Oliver’s does not place orders for my products nor do they check in my deliveries. Instead, I have dedicated shelf space, like a mini farm stand, in all four Oliver’s Markets. I can walk in to the produce department every Tuesday and Friday, move other produce over and restock my space with as many different products as available, often around 20 leafy greens and culinary herbs. I set the retail price, most at $2.49 per package, and their cost, $1.50, to give a 40% margin and buy back unsold product after 7 to 10 days to guarantee the sale. I leave extra stock in the back cooler if needed as the shelf is not to go empty and print them an invoice with my portable computer and printer at delivery that deducts any buy backs. This is how the bread bakeries and many prepared food makers sell to grocery stores. Oliver’s then prints and mails me a check combining all stores for each delivery day, two checks each week, within 11 days and lately 7 days after delivery. This works because of 25 years of trust and integrity plus having distinctive tasting produce that customers talk about and ask for when not available. I own a manufacturer’s UPC number series so Oliver’s can audit my sales by barcode number and compare to their purchases. They also include those sales in the Sonoma County products subtotal on every customer’s cash register receipt.

 

Oliver’s Markets’ four stores broke the combined $500,000 week in produce department sales this June. They would buy around $300,000 to support those sales given what they have to throw away. Their August produce sales are so far running an unreal 25% above 2016. Oliver’s had all Sonoma County grown produce at 20% off for the week of August 23 but ate the discount and paid farmers full price. Now that Oliver’s is employee owned, the long-term relationships that I have built with the next generation of produce managers will provide Sonoma County farmers the long term sales and income security they need to plant an olive orchard. Quality is essential, however, as retail customers will not buy overgrown or insect damaged produce. Visit any Oliver’s Market, but Windsor is the showcase, check out my products and everybody else’s and talk to the produce managers and buyers. Given the numerous micro-climates in Sonoma County along with greenhouse production, is entirely possible for Sonoma County farmers to be Oliver’s house brand of every day produce, supplying them year-round and be 25% of annual produce sales, a potential $4,000,000 in purchases for 2017. This is serious money and serious business for serious farmers only.

 

The best way to pull this off and work together is to form an Agricultural Marking Cooperative to take over the washing, packing and delivery business of Wine Country Cuisine and those similar operations of any other Farmer/Owner. Cooperatives are non-profit companies owned by the farmers who provide the products for sale. Sunkist Growers, Blue Diamond Almonds and Ocean Spray Cranberries are long time grocery store staples. Cooperative have anti-trust exemption so they can coordinate and allocate product production and varieties, standardize production methods, set prices, pool buy inputs, provide special labor services and do anything else the farmer/owners want. Any profit the Cooperative makes on a farmer’s produce is accounted for and paid as a patronage dividend. I have written software for Macintosh computers that can manage the Cooperative’s entire business and that of farmer/owners also.

 

Washing and bagging for retail is expensive to do but it takes care of most food safety issues that farmers must now address. Farmers could be paid 60% of the Cooperative invoiced sales for their produce within 14 days of delivery, adjusted if needed to reflect actual operating costs. Present prices mean farmers get $0.90 per retail package. These products are harvested bulk by the pound at mixed sizes so 20 pounds of chard would equal $36 to the farmer compared to a 20-pound case of 24 ct. bunched chard or $14.40 per pound for oregano and mint equal to a dozen bunches. Products with lower packing house costs would pay Farmers a higher percentage of invoice. Since products are sourced to several Farmers, each Farmer could then grow fewer products than needed for a CSA or farm market booth and harvest greens only once a week. This gives Farmers more time for crop protection efforts and following GAP’s.

 

Email Greg at WineCountryCuisine@me.com or call (707) 585-9434 for more information and discussion.