Pricing

The popularity of craft beer and micro-breweries combined with the growing awareness of buying locally-produced agricultural products provides Maryland farmers with an emerging crop production opportunity: hops. Research the possibilities of producing this high-value crop right here in Maryland. Maryland and surrounding states have a good market for locally-grown hops.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service website, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) threatens the health of honeybees across the nation, the issue exacerbating in the 1980s with the increase of new pathogens & pests. Since a great number of agricultural crops we grow in Maryland depend on honeybee pollination, the honeybee decline threatens our food industry.

Interested in raising animals but looking for something different than the conventional sheep, cattle, or laying hens? Then you might be interested in raising some type of alternative livestock. Examples of alternative livestock include antelope, elk, buffalo, alpacas, llamas, miniature horses, donkeys, zebra, camels, guardian dogs, ratites, game birds, ducks, wallabies, and more. Broadly defined, alternative livestock can be any non-traditional animal raised on your farm or property.

Food processing regulations are specific to each type of food. Different agencies regulate different types of food. Different food processing facilities may be restricted to producing only certain types of food. For example, processing regulations differ for perishable and non-perishable foods. Processing regulations differ for hazardous and non-hazardous foods.

I have a confession to make. I’m a blog reading junkie. I read five or six blogs every day. Some are about marketing trends, others about sustainable and regenerative farming practices, and some just because I like the writer’s topics and writing styles. I tell myself that this habit broadens my perspectives and serves to improve my skill sets. And they do, but isn’t this habit also part of my busyness every day?

Frozen foods are a pandemic powerhouse ringing in $65.1 billion in retail sales in 2020, a 21% increase compared to a year ago.” In 2020, frozen food sales grew in both dollars (+21%) and units (+13.3%), with nearly all types of frozen foods seeing double-digit sales increases...Feb 23, 2021.

My apologies to William Shakespeare for mangling the opening phrase of a soliloquy spoken by Prince Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play by the same name. But, as producers start drawing up their marketing plans for 2019, market vendors are questioning whether sales from farmers markets are still truly profitable. An agency marketing person declared to me recently, “Farmers Markets in Maryland are dead”.  At the risk of misappropriating another literary quote, Mark Twain said,“ The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.

A new global survey of consumer sentiment about the people who put food on our tables indicates that there is a lack of understanding of how providing safe, affordable food arrives, according to a new study from Cargill Inc. A majority of the respondents in the Food4Thought survey — 55% — believe farmers should care most about providing safe, healthy, abundant and affordable food. Farmers are under pressure to feed the world and protect the Earth’s resources through sustainable practices in addition to cost-effectively providing for their own families, the survey reported.”

The new buzz word in marketing is “pivoting. A pivot in business usually occurs when a company makes a fundamental change to their business after determining (usually through market research) that their product isn't meeting the needs of their intended market. The Covid-19 pandemic protocols have made producers and market outlets alike to pivot to more on-line ordering and pre-packaged products.

Happy New Year 2021, and like every new year before, this is prime planning time for your business. But unlike every year before, 2020 has given producers marketing challenges tagged by terms such as “pivoting,” “resilience,” and even “survival.” We are going into a new year but with the old year’s problems, “How much should I produce, and are people going to keep buying my products at their current rate?