Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
choose to sell some of your grower-picked fruit directly from your farm, per-
haps at a farm stand, and the remainder to a local food cooperative. This
blended approach provides you with increased flexibility and stability. In-
stead of a food cooperative, you might sell fruit that is sound, but not cos-
metically perfect, to a local cider press operator or other processor. By doing
so, you can sell more of your fruit than you would if you were only selling it
for fresh consumption.
Regardless of the primary marketing strategy that you employ, be sure to
have a backup market. It often makes the difference between a successful
orchard operation and one that is not successful.
Setting Prices and Terms of Sales
Business operators that simply guess at prices generally do not last long. If
you guess too low, you will cut into your profits and may even sell at a loss. If
you guess too high, you lose sales. It's better to take a systematic approach.
Follow the competition.
As a consumer, particularly in these economically
difficult times, prices are important to you. You do not want to pay more
than you have to for goods and services, and you probably compare prices
at different stores and shop for bargains. Your customers will do the same
thing. This is the basis for using your competitors' prices to set your own.
You normally do not want to be too far out of line with everyone else's prices
unless you provide some special service or other benefit that makes custom-
ers consider your price a bargain. There are several variations on the prac-
tice of pricing your goods according to competitors' prices.
You can set your prices the same as the competition. This is a simple,
straightforward way of setting prices. You simply produce your fruit or
value-added products, take a look at what those same things sell for in the
market you are targeting, and charge the same prices. Simplicity is about the
only thing going for this approach. Most importantly, it does not take into
account your costs of production. It does not make any sense to work hard,
