Bringing Your Products to Market

THINKFARM has a number of fact sheets and articles on finding market information, price information, marketing regulations, and more:

• Guide to Market Channel Selection
• Assessing Your Market Potential
• Pricing Farm Products
• Finding Price Information
• Direct Marketing Options
• Meat Inspection
• Organic Certification
• Marketing Your Farm: Learning to Tell Your Story

Canada’s dairy, turkey, chicken and table egg and hatching egg industries are regulated by supply management systems. Producers in a supply managed system agree to provide the market with quality products in sufficient quantities and not produce surpluses. Producers operate under a quota system, where each producer supplies a share of the market. For more information about opportunities for small-scale producers of supply managed commodities, read Getting Started in Small Scale Poultry and Getting Started in Small Scale Dairy.

Completing the Taking Stock workbook can help you with the planning needed to maintain and increase your farm’s profits.

• Taking Stock workbook
• Fillable worksheets

If you’re considering the Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) model, you’ll benefit from reading this profitability analysis of three Nova Scotian CSA farms:

• CSA Profitability
• Interactive CSA share cost calculator

Value-adding to your farm products can help you increase your profit margins. Perennia’s Innovation Centre can help with the development and testing of new farm and food products. The Innovation Centre also offer incubation space for clients who need manufacturing space to fine tune their new product.

Food safety is essential in today’s food system. Food safety starts on the farm and it doesn’t just happen, you need to plan for it. For more information on on-farm food safety principles and practices, read this introduction .

Department of Agriculture Food Safety Specialists issue permits to all food establishments in the province. If you are planning to sell certain products at a farmer’s market , operate a farm stand or on-farm retail outlet , or sell prepared foods at temporary events , you may also need a permit. Department of Agriculture staff also inspect provincially-licensed dairy processors, meat processors and abattoirs. Your nearest Food Safety Specialist can be a valuable resource on any food safety questions, even for products that do not require a permit.

If you are seeking an on-farm food safety or processor food safety certification, such as Canada GAP or HAACCP, Perennia offers a food safety consulting and training service.