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Ready to Sell From the Farm – Weninger Farms Joe Weninger, Weninger Farms
My name is Joe Weninger Our operation is sweet potatoes.
Finding your markets is the big thing. We started out with growing one acre just to
see how the potatoes grow. What you need to do for the crop. From there if we couldn’t
find a market it wasn’t a total loss. But we did find a small market in Toronto.
And then the following year we grew three acres cause we still didn’t have a big market.
And then we started doing phone calls to Loblaws, Sobeys. So the third year we grew six acres.
We kept calling and calling. And finally they said, ok bring us some samples. And then they
said ok. Bring us 300 boxes. And so we shipped 300 boxes. And then they said, well next week
we want another 300 boxes. We said we don’t have any more; we’re done. So they took
us on as a vendor and we told them that we would increase our crop size so that we could
grow a larger crop. John Weninger, Weninger Farms
My name is John Weninger The first few years when we were onboard with
the larger companies like Loblaws, it’s a specification of grade that they want. They
really hadn’t set out one at the beginning. And now as the slow growth of the sweet potato
industry has happened, there is a spec that they now require. It was a learning curve
and it was difficult the first year but they worked with us.
As a grower at this point we really have no complaints with dealing like a large company
like Loblaws. The price has been fair. When you go to market it’s a different story
there’s a lot of negotiations. Market price fluctuates day to day. So we prefer to deal
with the large company ourselves because we know we’re getting consistency in price.
We like dealing with Loblaws because we know we’re getting paid. And the orders are consistent
and large that it keeps us busy. Joe Weninger
Food safety.. Loblaws hired a third party company. They
came in; they just looked at your washing line, the cleanliness of the place. But since
then it’s gotten stricter. It’s a lot of paperwork. It’s just keeping a paper
trail of what you do. If you can meet that then it’s pretty simple. Straightforward.
We do have food safety. It’s Canada GAP. It’s what is required now by Loblaws; all
the big chains. It’s a lot of tracking and paperwork.
John Weninger I think qualities in any buyer is maintaining
consistent communication. There’s a lot of grower questions at the
beginning of the year where they approach us – either at a meeting or via email – and
ask where our biggest concerns are. We just did a survey here a couple of weeks ago and
that’s exactly what they asked us: Where’s our biggest concerns, what are our biggest
costs. Where do we see costs going up, in what area. Could be transportation, packing
costs, and right now it’s everywhere. We see it – fuel, transportation, box costs,
it’s all going up. I don’t know if I’d change anything too
different. As you take your steps learning something
new, cause we came from tobacco, this was fairly new to us, approaching the food industry
and then dealing with a large corporation directly.
I wouldn’t change anything differently. I think the learning curve as you grow your
business is vital and you learn from your mistakes and you learn from what people tell
you in the industry. So I don’t think I’d change anything. At all.