By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In a state becoming known nationally for local food initiatives, a new program is set to help producers move their products from the farm to retail outlets.

MarketReady was developed by researchers at the University of Kentucky (UK) led by Dr. Tim Woods, an agricultural economics professor, coming after several years of working with farmers, chefs and other industry professionals through the MarketMaker program, which created an interactive website to bring producers and retail together.

The UK Cooperative Extension Service is conducting a series of four MarketReady day-long training sessions designed to give attendees information on how to properly get their products to the retail market, be it to groceries or restaurants.

“The restaurants and retail operations are used to working with large wholesale providers, where they have a standard of quality, price, and a guaranteed delivery of products,” explained Woods. “Our local producers cannot be the large wholesale provider for these markets, but we saw the potential to develop a program to bridge that gap between what these retail markets need and what local producers can provide.”

The program found its start by Woods and his team interviewing more than 100 chefs, restaurateurs, grocery owners, distributors and brokers to get an idea of what they needed and wanted from local producers.

“Understanding that every market is different, we wanted to develop a checklist of 13 to 15 items that would make it simple for producers to be more competitive and better suppliers,” said Woods.  “At the same time we wanted to develop a program to help reduce the number of train wrecks we were seeing as producers jumped into new markets.”

Roger Snell, Farm to Retail liaison with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA), said this training program will benefit Kentucky Proud producers.
“We get a lot of new members into the program every day and some of them have never had experience with marketing to chefs or retail,” he said. “We believe in this program so much, we’re saying the first step should be to go to this. It will answer so many fundamental questions, it truly makes you look like a pro in trying to market yourself.”

Kentucky Proud has provided a marketing path for producers across the state and has been especially helpful for those diversifying their farming operations. But for producers there is more to it than just growing the product and taking it to the market.

The Kentucky Center for Ag and Rural Development (KCARD) has recognized that and worked with producers for years, helping them navigate new and existing markets. Nathan Routt, KCARD business development specialist, said once a farmer understands the logistics of getting a product to the retail market, they’ll need a business plan.

“The first step is to get the education at the MarketReady training, then the next step, the follow-up, is what we do as far as giving them the template for an invoice to show them what to have listed, getting them set up with a record-keeping system and also helping them with a cost analysis to determine what it costs to produce this product and where to price it to make a profit,” he said.

Routt added that the training helps introduce participants to the services KCARD offers. He also said as the agricultural economy changes, there are products that can replace the once-top crop of tobacco. But moving from that tobacco-dependent farm economy into these new markets doesn’t come overnight.

“It’s not a painless transition. There are new things to learn and it’s like anything else. It’s a competitive market and farmers have to do the right things before they succeed, but there is a lot of opportunity out there,” he said.
According to the KDA, the training sessions, which run 9 a.m.-3 p.m. local time, will be Feb. 11 at the Campbell County extension office in Highland Heights; Feb. 16 at the Pulaski County office in Somerset; Feb. 23 at Elk Creek Winery in Owenton; and Feb. 24 at the Warren County extension office in Bowling Green.
The cost of training is $25 and includes lunch, refreshments and all training materials. For more information, go to www.uky.edu/fsic/marketready/index.php and for directions to the sessions, visit www.ca.uky.edu/county for the extension offices and www.elkcreekvineyards.com for Elk Creek Winery.