Producing preserved food can be a business opportunity for farmers, since it is a way to monetize your crops and address agriculture’s seasonal nature.
We are not going to tell you how hard it is to farm or plow the land in this article. You know that well, because you do it every day. What we want to talk about is a complimentary alternative to your work in the field. This option will allow you to open a new line of business without neglecting your passion and core business.
Making gourmet preserved food is an opportunity that perfectly suits your work as a farmer. Our proposal might surprise you, and you may think we are mixing different things, but that is not the case. Think it over and you will see: making your own gourmet preserved food can be the perfect enterprise for you.
Gourmet preserved food as a business opportunity for farmers
What are gourmet packaged foods?
Gourmet packaged food is produced using handcraft processes based on local traditions and high-quality products; this can be native food from your region and even have an official certificate of origin.
How can packaged food become a business opportunity for farmers?
Gourmet packaged food adapts to your work and life style. Besides that, producing it is a way to:
- Profit from those fruits or vegetables that you cannot sell, either a part or a whole harvest. We are pretty sure that one of your main concerns is not being able to commercialize your whole production and having to waste it, along with everything this means for your business.
- Secure an alternative way to fight the ridiculously low prices offered by intermediaries. Producing gourmet preserved food allows you not to depend so much on market circumstances nor having to follow its seasonal trends. So if you think that what you are getting paid does not suit your investment, you can start making preserved food and directly sell it to clients or distributors during the entire year!
- Make the most out of your product by giving a longer shelf life to it by cooking, pasteurizing/sterilizing and packaging it.
- Push up the value of a native vegetable or fruit from your area, with or without a Protected designation of origin certificate, and make your preserved food a typical local product.
- Have year-round work, despite the seasonality of your crops. Making preserved food is a regular activity. Although its preparation may span for just a few months depending on what you grow, you can sell preserved food throughout the year.
- Expand and/or diversify your business to make it thrive and become an enterprise with lots of potential, perhaps even selling overseas or through an online marketplace.
- Self-employment, having a long-term vision and turning what was originally a hobby into a formal business. If this is your case, consider you can turn your small self-supply crop into a new stable income.
- Provide more value to your main business. This is very common in agritourism, rural homes or hotels that have a small farming production and are able to package food and offer it to their clients year-round.
Did you know…?
- A study by two international NGOs, IFOAM-Organics International and FIBL, showed that the eco-agricultural industry in the world had an evident 9% growth during 2019.
- As per European Commission data for 2020, 45% of fruit and vegetable production in Europe is wasted halfway between the countryside and consumers.
Shared food workshops: a business incubator for atisan producers of gourmet preserved food
Being able to produce preserved food and then commercialize it requires an investment and, just as any other business, certain steps are necessary to create your own preserved food enterprise.
One possibility, at least at the beginning, is to use a shared or collective workshop, since a minimum investment allows you to access the necessary equipment such as an autoclave, which is crucial for pasteurizing and/or sterilizing your canned products.
Success stories about gourmet preserved food produced by farmers
This is not an original idea at all. There are already farmers who, just like you, have seen the production of gourmet preserved food as a way to use their surplus, take advantage of food rejected due to its appearance, promote local traditions and a circular economy.
At our Success Stories section, you will find examples such as Aixada Preserves, Tarro Verde, Espárragos Foz-Clua, Come Frutos del Bosque (CFDB) and Virtute Naturae, among many others.
TERRA Food-Tech® autoclaves for producing gourmet preserved food
There are many factors to keep in mind when choosing an autoclave. We know this decision is not to be taken lightly.
On our part, we can tell you that TERRA Food-Tech® autoclaves are some of the few in the market designed specifically for local entrepeneurs, micro business owners and farmers to make preserved food and ready meals. These autoclaves have the same technological features as industrial models, but they are small-sized and specifically designed for packaged food producers to work at small scales.
Do you dare to pack your harvests?
If you are a farmer, don’t look any further! Ask us for more information without obligation to assess the possible profitability of your new gourmet canning business with your crops. For more information, please contact our sales team. We will be happy to help you give a new life to your products or expand your business.