Aug 8, 2011
In July the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), with support from the USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant Program, released a feasibility study on creating Aggregation & Marketing Centers (AMC) for California's North Coast region. The counties covered included Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa. An AMC is, in its simplist form, a cold storage facility - similar to the Thomas' facility in the Ukiah Valley - that producers in a collective could use to hold crops or meat for distribution to the greater local area that could include the Bay area. I've reproduced the Executive Summary of the study below but the full report is worth a read. You can download it as a pdf from: http://www.caff.org/CAFF_RBEG3_Report_FINAL.pdf
"This report presents a market analysis of the food system in California’s four North Coast counties (Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake), with the core aim of identifying opportunities to expand local markets for food producers.
After a robust series of interviews, surveys, and meetings with both producers and buyers, it was determined that there is both the supply and demand necessary to expand local food production and distribution in the North Coast region. It was further determined that an Aggregation and Marketing Center (AMC) could provide an effective mechanism to increase the availability of local product efficiently and sustainably.
It is clear that there is a real desire from distributors and other large purchasers to make more local product available. Consumer demand for local food is high, driving demand from restaurant, retail, and institutional customers. Regional producers have likewise indicated that they are willing to make more of their product available to the local market, predicated on profit margins sufficient to justify any necessary investment, and there appears to be North Coast farmland available for additional production. Many growers also indicated a need for services in addition to straightforward aggregation, including cold storage, packing, and various forms of training.
Locally produced fruits and vegetables are in particularly high demand, and would be well served by the establishment of an AMC. While there is a demand for and local supply of cheese, meat, and grains, these products have unique challenges, which put them beyond the focus of an AMC, at least in its early stages.
An early-phase AMC could be managed by a non- or for-profit organization, with concurrent business or programmatic activities complementary to produce aggregation, appropriate entrepreneurial and produce handling expertise, and adequate capital and infrastructural resources. While multiple organizational candidates exist, there is currently no appropriate turnkey facility.
There is sufficient business justification to establish a North Coast AMC, however. This service is much needed by both growers and buyers, and its social, environmental, and economic impacts could extend throughout the region."
"This report presents a market analysis of the food system in California’s four North Coast counties (Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, and Lake), with the core aim of identifying opportunities to expand local markets for food producers.
After a robust series of interviews, surveys, and meetings with both producers and buyers, it was determined that there is both the supply and demand necessary to expand local food production and distribution in the North Coast region. It was further determined that an Aggregation and Marketing Center (AMC) could provide an effective mechanism to increase the availability of local product efficiently and sustainably.
It is clear that there is a real desire from distributors and other large purchasers to make more local product available. Consumer demand for local food is high, driving demand from restaurant, retail, and institutional customers. Regional producers have likewise indicated that they are willing to make more of their product available to the local market, predicated on profit margins sufficient to justify any necessary investment, and there appears to be North Coast farmland available for additional production. Many growers also indicated a need for services in addition to straightforward aggregation, including cold storage, packing, and various forms of training.
Locally produced fruits and vegetables are in particularly high demand, and would be well served by the establishment of an AMC. While there is a demand for and local supply of cheese, meat, and grains, these products have unique challenges, which put them beyond the focus of an AMC, at least in its early stages.
An early-phase AMC could be managed by a non- or for-profit organization, with concurrent business or programmatic activities complementary to produce aggregation, appropriate entrepreneurial and produce handling expertise, and adequate capital and infrastructural resources. While multiple organizational candidates exist, there is currently no appropriate turnkey facility.
There is sufficient business justification to establish a North Coast AMC, however. This service is much needed by both growers and buyers, and its social, environmental, and economic impacts could extend throughout the region."
By John M Harper
Author - County Director Mendocino & Lake/Livestock & Natural Resources Advisor - Emeritus
Author - County Director Mendocino & Lake/Livestock & Natural Resources Advisor - Emeritus