Our meeting last Saturday introduced some other concepts that impact upon the need for integrated production for sea buckthorn.
The nature of the crop at the moment is largely foraged and small scale. The implications of this are seasonality and how does one turn fresh berry into product. Harvesting also has issues.
Seasonality is a concept that is rare in today’s market where crops are grown all over the world. Growing crops abroad often encourages questioning of environmental credibility. The logic of flying crops in from distant lands only becomes apparent when it is compared to the significant costs and use of energy to guarantee high yield in cool climate. Consumers want to pay as little as possible for their produce and that needs intensive farming. Carbon footprints will become increasingly important in the future and energy saving use and farming methods that reduce carbon emissions will be part of that.
We often want to see our products produced locally and foraged crops tick that box very well, but what does local mean?
Local in many minds means in the same village or within the area of the town that you live in. But in terms of food production it is now possible to harvest product fresh and move it to market within hours because of our transport infrastructure. So local does not always guarantee the only form of delivery of fresh quality.
Local can also be perceived as an understanding that it comes from a farmer or small producer that one knows or can associate with.
This cuts through the issue of distance and places the concept into trust in the producer. Trust to deliver a fresh and quality product.
Identifying with a person – even a named farmer is important because it creates and is a transparent form of traceability. It associates the consumer with the producer and the land that the product has come from.
This is possibly different for a restaurant as so many now advertise their use of local produce. In reality what does that mean? Many grow their own vegetables and herbs, some even their own meat. That is truly local.
That is true to its meaning, but the desire to use local in this context provides the chef with quality that is absolute. Quality that is quantifiable and that provides the best opportunity to maximise taste and flavour in a dish.
Quality keeps coming into the equation when thinking about food supply from a small business. It is the USP that the producer can offer and that the consumer looks for.
But for a small producer there is often a barrier in product development. Small production does not fit well with modern food processing technology and equipment. The availability of machinery to pasteurise in ways that protects nutrients and taste exists but unless you are lucky it will not be local to a producer. These machines also are expensive and therefore throughput is important. Small producers have small volumes of produce to process and this does not fit well with the capacity of many processing machines. So often the ability to access the best technology that can sympathetically process high quality foods is limited.
I have been impressed at sea buckthorn conferences by the ability of some small producers to develop their products. This comes about because of access to new product development facilities that are cost effective. In particular are the facilities offered in Manitoba, Canada where small producers can hire facilities and technical support to develop and bring their product to market. This requires government aid and revenue support. In this case the facility is also tied into the University of Manitoba which helps to bring technical assistance to the opportunity the facility provides.
Small business is often resourceful because it has to be.
An article last week by Julian Mellentin of the New Nutrition Business brought this to relevance for sea buckthorn.
Small business lack resources so they are more targeted when looking to markets. Targeting specific consumers creates connection and loyalty. These sort of consumers are probably more self motivated, they might represent a niche market, but that is enough for an SME to need as a start-up.
The internet age has reduced marketing costs and product launch risk so accessing consumers directly through their mobile phones creates opportunity for sales and growth.
SME’s are by their nature personal enterprises. They are driven by personalities with great belief in their product. Restricted resources and high risk can be managed by taking time to develop a market. Speciality food is not a get rich quick business.
Taking a product into a market that does not know you or your product is high risk. Excepting it to provide quick return compounds this issue. Development at a pace that is able to grow resources that can then be re-allocated to expand the business minimises the risk. It takes longer but is more secure.
How long did it take CocoCola to become what it is today – a start up from pre world war one?
So this is the model that I see for sea buckthorn. Slow and certain, built on strength; built on quality; and a defined focus on the consumer trust, need and willingness to pay.
