FRANKFORT, Ky. — Earlier this month, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced nearly $118 million in grants would go to states to help in efforts of strengthening markets for specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) received more than $300,000 that will go to a variety of projects. Agriculture Commissioner James Comer echoed a comment of Vilsack’s about it helping the rural economy in Kentucky while providing assistance to the specialty crops sector.
"This funding will greatly enhance our efforts to help Kentucky’s specialty crop businesses grow and prosper," he said.
The University of Kentucky (UK) will share in the state funds by way of a number of projects designed to help producers get their products to consumers.
Tim Woods, an extension professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, said this is money that comes in each year to support a variety of projects intended to aid development of specialty crop markets here in Kentucky.
One way of doing that is helping producers learn to market to bigger retail customers. Woods said those markets include restaurants, grocery stores, wholesale partners and programs like the Farm to School initiative.
"We’ve had this program in place in Kentucky for a couple of years called ‘Market Ready,’ which is a training program that has basically been built on the perspective from buyers," he said. "We interviewed over 150 buyers in and around Kentucky from all those different groups, who said what they wanted to see from the local producers/suppliers, and then we basically developed a curriculum out of that."
Woods added in Kentucky many of the specialty crop producers are building with an emphasis on direct-to-consumer markets such as on-farm markets and community farmers’ markets. "We have a little over 700 producers that sell through produce auctions, but to actually start developing these kinds of relationships into these commercial channels is a different story and requires quite a different skill set."
He said the proposal is to expand upon the program and develop training for these producers. Once a grower has gone through the training, which is designed to be taken over a two-year period, a meet-the-buyer event helps them be more successful as they move more into a commercial market.
"It really came at the request of the buyers that an education program like this be put into place because they see the huge demand potential," said Woods.
But some larger retailers such as grocery stores have been a little hesitant to "put their foot down on the pedal" because they don’t feel the producer readiness is in place to supply all those retail needs in the way it is needed. And, Woods said there may be some anxiety on the part of the producers to look to the larger retailers.
"I think sometimes the anxiety is unwarranted – and that’s part of what we are trying to do in this education program, to actually bring the buyers in to be a part of the training program as a buyer panel," he said.
Those panels present producers a chance to hear directly from buyers involved in a variety of backgrounds. "This really helps those producers take the first steps after the introductions and they get an idea of what these (retailers) are really looking for."
One thing already in place to help producers navigate the retail markets is the Kentucky Proud marketing program. Woods said the branding portion of marketing efforts has been done because of the program. Now, he would like to see more of those grant dollars come into the state.
