Direct Marketing of Season Long Berry Enterprise

An Extended-Season Berry Production and Marketing System
to Enhance Viability of Small Appalachian Farms
and Rural Communities

Funded by the National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program -- Small Farms and Rural Communities

Project Period:  July 2005 - June 2009

Abstract:

The proposed project will study the impact of widespread adoption of a unique full-season system of berry production and marketing system on small farms and rural communities.  A system of various berry types, varieties and production systems will be designed for Appalachian Ohio and other U.S. regions of similar climate and topography.  Marketing strategies will be proposed to take advantage of the extended product mix and target high-value markets within one-half day delivery of producers. The project will evaluate the profitability of the berry production system for small farmers, examine factors that influence consumer demand for fresh and processed berry production in rural and urban markets, and evaluate market potential within existing baking and institutional food industries in the distribution area. It will estimate impacts of increased production of berry products on four case study rural communities’ primary and secondary income generation, employment, and infrastructure demands.  Experimental plots will be developed to test the berry production system and collect detailed labor data for each phase.  Net present value of system profitability will be estimated and FinPac budgets and cash flow tools developed for Extension education programs.  Consumer intercept studies of a variety of produce markets will evaluate consumer willingness-to-pay for locally produced foods, and used to devise strategies for extracting premium prices to producers.  Finally, recommendations on structures for production firms and marketing organizations will be evaluated at assumed alternative levels of berry production and processing, and the resulting income and infrastructure costs calculated for each scenario.

Project Personnel:

 

Project Results
Event	"On the Relative Contribution of Local Production, Organic Certification, Nutritional Claims, and Product Branding on Consumer Choice for a Processed Food Product".  Seminar presented at the University of Kentucky, 1:30 pm, March 31, 2009, 341 Charles E. Barnhart Building.
Journal Articles	Darby, Kim, Marvin T. Batte, Stan Ernst and Brian Roe.  Decomposing Local:  "A Conjoint Analysis of Locally Produced Foods."  American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 9, No. 2, 2008:  476-486.  (Copyrighted - See Journal) Ernst, Stan; Marvin T. Batte and Julie T. McNaull.  2007. "Pie Potential: Examining Berry Market Expansion Through Baked Goods." Research Update. Journal of Food Distribution Research.  v.38 no.1; March 2007. (Copyrighted - See Journal)
Slides	Slide presentation at NRI Project Directors meeting, Washington, DC, March 9, 2007.
Julie A. McNaull Thesis	McNaull, Julie Ann. "Consumer Preferences for “Local” Fresh Baked Pies: Estimating Willingness-to-Pay Using Conjoint Analysis".  Unpublished M.S. Thesis, The Ohio State University, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, March 2007.
AAEA Selected Paper - 2006	"Willingness to pay for locally produced foods: A customer intercept study of direct market and grocery store shoppers".  A paper to be presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, July 23-26, 2006.
Kim Darby Thesis	Darby, Kimberly Jeanne.  "Consumer Preferences for Locally-Grown Berries: A Discrete Choice Model Estimating Willingness-To-Pay". Unpublished M.S. Thesis, The Ohio State University, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, June 2006.
AEDE-RP-0057-05	January 2006.  This report updates the report above to include customers surveyed at Farm and Farmers' Markets and traditional grocery stores.
Preliminary report - Customer Intercept Study.	This is a preliminary report delivered to the 2005 Annual Conference of the Food Distribution Research Society in Washington, DC, October 15-19, 2005.  Note that it includes information ONLY for customers of farm and farmers' markets.  These are customers who have demonstrated a willingness to travel to these markets to purchase fresh produce. In October and November, we are interviewing customers of traditional grocery stores and soon will have comparison results for these two groups.
Case for Local Foods Slides	Slide presentation from the Case for Local Foods conference, Columbus, Ohio, January 11, 2006.

This Page Last updated:  Sunday, March 29, 2009