2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Local farmers and entrepreneurs in the food industry face challenges of highly perishable crops and competitive marketplaces thus need additional market avenues and means of aligning local supply and demand. Value-added food products provide an alternative use for local produce to extend market reach, expand product seasonality, and increase business income. Underserved small and/or beginning farmers and entrepreneurs lack the knowledge and facilities to move into value-added production. In addition, these farmers and entrepreneurs have limited resources to effectively create a marketing plan with a consumer-friendly narrative. The project team believes educational training in value-added production coupled with marketing plan strategies can address constraints facing small farms and entrepreneurs. The outreach program ‘Keep It Local!’ was developed to minimize risks in production and marketing of locally produced value-added foods in Arkansas. The primary sources of risk addressed were: (1) mitigating production risks inherent in expanding into value-added food production using locally grown crops; (2) reducing marketing risk for small and beginning farmers and entrepreneurs by developing effective messages that resonate with consumer interests in local foods; (3) demonstrating the potential to enhance profitability and reduce production risk in local food systems by improving local food processing and marketing. The project team delivered three workshops in Northwest, Central, and Eastern Arkansas in October 2018. The workshops provided an immersive and interactive opportunity for attendees to learn how to incorporate value-added operations and company branding for marketing strategies into their business plans. The program content included topics such as creating value-added, foods, horticultural considerations for value-added production, processing value-added foods, branding and marketing your business, business and marketing plans, marketing with social media, knowing your consumer, and telling about farm operation to reach your consumers. The workshop had 67 small farmers and entrepreneurs. Among workshop attendees, 10 participants applied for one-on-one assistance to create customized branding messages for their farm business or products. Project deliverables included workshop notebook and 10 unique marketing narratives. Keep It Local! project was managed by the University of Arkansas and University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture funded by Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center and United States Department of Agriculture, NIFA program.