Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 14
Marketing an Orchard Business
CHAPTER CONTENTS
Some years ago, I was part of a joint university-industry project designed to
identify challenges to establishing and operating specialty crop businesses,
such as orchards. We found the main obstacle was not getting a farm es-
tablished or producing a crop; it was marketing the product. It does not
matter how well or how cheaply you produce something if there is no mar-
ket for it. If you cannot sell it profitably, the business will fail. Trailing far
behind and roughly tied for second in terms of challenges were labor and
capital to start and maintain the enterprise until it was profitable. The easi-
est part of the process was growing a crop.
While poor marketing can quickly kill a business, good marketing can make
it a great success. The nice thing is that marketing is not new or a mysteri-
