Are you a farmer who is struggling to sell your produce? Do you feel like you're doing everything right, but no one is buying your crops? You're not alone. Many farmers are finding it difficult to sell their produce in today's market.
But don't worry, there are ways to guarantee that you'll sell your crops. Keep reading to learn more.
No Substitute For Marketing
It's no secret that farmers are using the internet to sell their farm products. The question is, how can you make the most of this opportunity?
To sell your farm produce online, you need to do some work. Among other things, you need to do the following:
- Take clear photos of your agricultural products
- Write a description for each produce
- Enter all quantity and price information
Selling your farm crops online is not a marketing strategy. It's a channel to distribute farm products across byuers in your region.
Choose appropriate pricing. If your farm crops are overly expensive, no one would buy from you. Always find out what your customers truly need. Fill that need for them.
5 Factors Farmers Should Consider Before Choosing An Online Platform to Sell Their Produce
1. The Longevity of the Platform
The questions you should ask are —how long have the owners of this platform been providing channels for sales of farm produce?
How are they adapting to changes? What goals do they have?
2. Clients Among Farmers
Get to know the number of farms that make use of this platform. Also, get to know the types of farm produce they specialize in selling.
Do a bit of investigation, ask farmers who have made use of the platform to tell you about their experiences.
3. Fees
Every online platform has a percentage they charge on every sale you make.
Find out about their fee structure. Know the cost of selling farm crops on their platform. Decide if it suits you or not.
4. Ease of Management
A good online platform should give you the freedom to run your farming business as you would like.
After a customer makes a purchase, what will be required of you should not bring too much stress.
5. Customer Experience
Do buyers of farm crops find it easy to navigate this online platform? As a seller of farm produce, you should be concerned about the user experience of your customers.
If a customer finds it difficult to navigate the platform pages, he may decide to switch to another online farm store.
Platforms For Selling Farm Crops Online
There are many platforms online to sell your farm products online. The world is a global village, and so you should take advantage of digital media to sell your farm produce.
The following are typical examples:
- Farmlovers.org is a farm-to-table marketplace where farmers sell fruits and vegetables online directly to their customers, providing them with the freshest and healthiest food available on the market.
This platform is the world no. 1 farm-to-table marketplace. - Farmersmarketonline.com is dedicated to providing an inexpensive opportunity for small-scale and home-based entrepreneurs to sell their homemade, homegrown, and self-produced products to shoppers worldwide.
- Barn2Door.com emerged from the idea that Farmers should profit more from the products they sell—without a middleman marking up prices. Barn2Door focuses exclusively on serving Farmers - providing the software and services to run their business.
- Graze Cart is another wonderful online marketplace you can sell your farm produce. It is the best online platform to sell your perishable farm produce.
This platform also offers farmers to sell their farm products through pick-up locations. - Locallygrown.net is a platform that gives opportunities to farmers or farm managers to start their own online market. This platform tries to replicate all the events that occur in a traditional farmers' market.
- Schohariefresh.com is an online Farmers’ Market providing easy access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and a variety of food products from Schoharie County.
This platform allows farmers to log in at their convenience to keep inventories up-to-date and monitor sales. - Wildkale.com is an online marketplace. Just like at an open-air farmers market, at Wildkale, you can buy fresh food directly from your best local farms.
Wildkale has no middlemen, food warehouses, or other lengthy distribution channels. The only warehouse is the farmer's barn. - Agro-Market24 is an international agricultural exchange platform you can make use of to sell your farm crops. On this platform, you can either buy or sell agricultural products.
- Cropspot is another platform you can advertise and sell your farm crops. On this platform, you can stay informed about new market developments at all times.
- Eatfromfarms.com This platform permits cooperative marketing, you can add other farmers’ products to your offerings, and the other farmers can control their inventory and pricing.
Other (Offline) Ways Farmers Use to Sell Their Products
1. Pick-Your-Own Farms
Pick Your Own farm operation is a type of farm gate direct marketing (farm-to-table) strategy where the emphasis is on customers doing the harvesting themselves.
Pick-your-own operations serve as an alternative selling method that, depending on the type of produce a farmer grows and the farm's customer base, can supplement other marketing strategies.
2. Food Circles
A food circle is closely related to community-supported agriculture (CSA). A group of farmers in a town combines with others to pool their farm crops together.
The usual ratio is usually 1 farmer for every 10 nonfarm families. One major disadvantage of this method is that it requires a lot of individuals to set it up.
This method does not give a farmer the chance to set a price for his farm produce.
3. Farm-to-Table Restaurants
Selling farm crops directly to restaurants is slightly better than selling to grocery stores.
Most farm-to-table restaurants are willing to pay more for farm crops delivered to them. Make sure you make the crops clean and attractive.
Find out what the specific type and the number of farm crops they would need. Trust is earned with quick delivery, do not pledge what you can't deliver.
4. Cooperatives
For farmers who do not like the idea of direct marketing, selling through cooperatives is a good idea.
Cooperatives work when a group of small producers who are all raising the same offer(s) comes together to make profits.
The main drawback of this method is that farmers do not get the retail price for their farm crops. Co-op fees and salary of the salesperson reduce the overall profits of farmers.
5. Farmers Markets
The use of farmers markets is one of the best ways a farmer can sell his crops. One major benefit of this method is that farmers can find large customers in one place.
One downside of the farmer's market is the amount of time and cost of taking crops to the farm market.
6. Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Community-supported agriculture is a system in which consumers within a community subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or groups of farms.
In this community-based system, both the farmers and the consumers share the risks associated with farming.
In return for subscribing to a harvest, subscribers receive either a weekly or bi-weekly box of produce or other farm goods.
7. Grocery and Health-Food Stores
Selling your farm produce wholesale to grocery stores is one of the most lucrative ways where you can sell your farm crops.
You must enter into a proper agreement with the store you'd be selling to. Ensure anything you supply to a grocery store is clean. Dirty produce is a complete turnoff for most grocery stores.
8. Roadside Stands
This is one of the easiest ways how farmers can sell produce. Roadside stands bring customers without much effort.
As a farmer, you can choose to set up a roadside stand near your farm. Make your stand attractive to customers with clear information.
With time, a roadside stand can turn into a tidy little on-farm shop. It's also a good way to dispose of excess farm produce.
