Green Business Opportunity In Local Foods - Address the Supply Chain Issue
by David Arthur, LEED AP
Locally grown fresh food is becoming hip... Or at least the demand for local, high quality food that has not been trucked across the country or shipped
across the world is increasing and restaurants are taking note.
From high-end restaurants to neighborhood bakery cafes, eateries are
recognizing the marketing value of offering locally grown produce.
Local food not only tastes better, it supports local agriculture,
keeps money in the local economy, and reduces the vast carbon
footprint associated with transporting food products thousands of miles
from field or orchard to plate.
The trend has opened a largely overlooked need that is being addressed
by only a handful of small business owners who have been paying close
attention.
Here is the problem: local farmers have food that they need to sell
through farmer's markets, sell wholesale directly to grocers, and sell
to chefs in the local restaurant market. Making the sales contacts with
this list of outlets and transporting the goods to each point of sale
on a regular basis takes time and resources that few farmers have. On
the other hand, local grocers and restauranteurs have a need for
locally grown food, yet few have the time or resources to travel to the
nearby farms or farmer's markets in order to supply their needs. It's
the classic supply-chain problem, and it is also the makings for a good
market niche.
Enter
the local foods delivery service...
The business model is relatively simple: provide a transport and
distribution service between farmers and restaurants and markets.
Either charge a flat fee for the weekly service, or purchase
produce at wholesale prices and resell at a profit.
In the Pacific Northwest, a number of small companies have
sprouted up to fill the niche. One such company in Anchorage, Root
Sellers, specializes in moving the produce of the nearby fertile
Matanuska-Susitna Valley to eating establishments 40 miles south in Anchorage. Founded
by two former chefs and a food writer with a passion for supporting
local agriculture, the company is showing great promise and is filling
a valued niche. Both the farmers who sell to the service directly from
their fields or farms and the chefs who enjoy food that has not
bounced, bruised, and aged the its way across the 2,500 miles from
contiguous 48 states are happy. (Anchorage Daily News, January 2nd, 2009.)
In its simplest form the business might consist of little more than a
cell phone, a computer, a reliable delivery truck, and some contacts in
your local food industry.
And just imagine how much carbon
release you will be preventing!
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