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NYFVI Funds E-Commerce Farmers Market for NY Ag Products
Html will soon stand for High-Tech Marketing on-Line for New York’s
agricultural producers and processors. With funding from the New York Farm
Viability Institute, Inc., Morrisville State College’s Computing and
Information Technologies Professor Kim Mills, Agricultural Business Assistant
Professor Sheila Marshman and 20 producers/processors are developing a model
for farmer-to-consumer selling via the Internet. The new online farmers’
market aims to increase the profitability of each participating farm by at
least 10 percent in the first year with a four-year cumulative profit in
excess of $4 million for more than 500 participating farmers from across New
York state.
“E-commerce
is an untapped market for agricultural producers who are good at creating
value-added products, but lack the information technology skills and time to
promote those products online, ”Mills says. ” This New York Farm Viability
Institute-funded project is providing producers with a low-cost, low-risk
opportunity to see how their products might sell online.” (Photo:
Morrisville State College Professor Kim Mills and student Kaamil Baba-Kamara
work on NY’s Online Farmers’ Market initial product line-up: maple products,
jams & jellies, herbs, alpaca yarn, evergreen wreaths, sausage, wine, honey,
and frozen prepared meals featuring NY-grown produce and meats.)
Marshman says, “Online selling reaches higher income audiences outside the
rural economy. Participating producers will increase sales and bring new money
into their local economy.”
Mills and Marshman are identifying the obstacles that producers see for
participating in online markets, including writing product
descriptions, inventory maintenance, packaging, and shipping. Mills says,
after a successful trial run, a producer who thought online selling would not
work for him became a charter member of the project.
Marshman says producers’ fears subside once producers realize how convenient
the online market is to use and that the market will handle credit card
processing. A future option will be to have Morrisville State students handle
packing and shipping as a centralized order fulfillment service.
New York Farm Viability Institute-funded projects are known for making a broad
network of expertise available to NY’s farmers. In addition to the e-commerce
skills provided by Morrisville State College, farmers participating in the
online market project are working with Cornell University’s NY FarmNet Program
to incorporate online selling into their farm business plans. Food processing
experts at the New York State Food Venture Center at Cornell’s Agricultural
Experiment Station in Geneva and at Morrisville State’s Nelson Farms will help
connect farmers developing innovative food products to the market.
The project’s participating producers are tracking their time, tasks, and
costs for a how-to guide to help other producers join the online marketplace.
For More Info:
Kim Mills
Morrisville State College
315-684-6746