Abstract
AbstractDue to strong interest in local foods by US consumers, farmers are now marketing not only to traditional wholesale outlets but also via short supply chains to consumers, grocers, restaurants, schools and other local intermediaries. Our research questions are: (1) what farm and farmer characteristics predict farmers’ participation in various direct marketing channels, and (2) what farm and farmer characteristics predict farmers’ choice of a particular combination of direct marketing channels? This work is important because prior research suggests that while total direct sales via short supply chains continue to grow, direct-to-consumer sales (e.g. via farmers’ markets and Community Support Agriculture, or CSAs) are plateauing. Our work highlights key relationships and implies potential barriers and opportunities for farmers in this maturing local foods landscape. To answer our research questions empirically, we employ the 2015 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey, collected by USDA in 2016, and binomial and multinomial logit regressions. Our research yields a number of useful results. For example, we find evidence suggesting the existence of product-specific barriers to participation in certain channels; livestock producers are less likely than other farmers to sell directly to retailers, whereas vegetable farmers are less likely to sell to intermediaries. We also find that beginning farmers are more likely to sell directly to retailers, but less likely to sell to intermediaries than more established farmers, suggesting potential barriers and opportunities for entry into this channel for less experienced farmers. These insights suggest potential areas of attention for policymakers and other decisionmakers, as well as areas for future study.
Highlights
After a period of increasing consumer interest in local foods over the last 20 years, local food markets in the USA are maturing (Thilmany and Woods, 2018)
Livestock producers are less likely than other farmers to sell directly to retailers, and vegetable farmers are less likely to sell to intermediaries, suggesting product-specific barriers to participation in these direct marketing channels
The results from the multinomial logit regression help us to better understand the relationship between farm and farmer characteristics and the use of common marketing channel combinations—we can think of each combination as a marketing strategy (Table 3)
Summary
After a period of increasing consumer interest in local foods over the last 20 years, local food markets in the USA are maturing (Thilmany and Woods, 2018). Livestock producers are less likely than other farmers to sell directly to retailers, and vegetable farmers are less likely to sell to intermediaries, suggesting product-specific barriers to participation in these direct marketing channels. We use separate binary logit models to estimate the relationship between farm and farmer characteristic and the choice of each of the four main marketing channels—direct-to-consumer, direct-to-retailer, direct-toinstitution and direct-to-intermediary.
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