Planning

The process of identifying your potential customer Decision Marketing Units (DMUs), determining your market segments, and then developing a targeted strategy is called market research. This research involves gathering additional information about customers, competition, and overall market potential.

Other Resources is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide information on other resources that will help your product to become ready for retail.

Getting Things Right is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section will provide information on supply, storage, purchasing, establishing prices, ordering and delivery schedules, invoicing and payment terms, and product promotions.

Product Development and Production is part of the Maryland Retail Products Producer Program. This section provides information on product development and production practices.

If you’re looking for something that is predictable and never varies from day to day, do not get involved with horses! When horses are involved, you will never have a “normal” day again.

Agritourism—one of the fastest-growing segments of agricultural direct marketing—allows farmers to diversify their core operations and keep farmland in production while preserving scenic vistas and maintaining farming traditions. By providing authentic farm experiences for visitors, agritourism helps educate the public about the importance of agriculture to a community’s economic base, quality of life, history, and culture.

The popularity of craft beer and micro-breweries combined with the growing awareness of buying locally-produced agricultural products provides Maryland farmers with an emerging crop production opportunity: hops. Research the possibilities of producing this high-value crop right here in Maryland. Maryland and surrounding states have a good market for locally-grown hops.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service website, Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) threatens the health of honeybees across the nation, the issue exacerbating in the 1980s with the increase of new pathogens & pests. Since a great number of agricultural crops we grow in Maryland depend on honeybee pollination, the honeybee decline threatens our food industry.

Interested in raising animals but looking for something different than the conventional sheep, cattle, or laying hens? Then you might be interested in raising some type of alternative livestock. Examples of alternative livestock include antelope, elk, buffalo, alpacas, llamas, miniature horses, donkeys, zebra, camels, guardian dogs, ratites, game birds, ducks, wallabies, and more. Broadly defined, alternative livestock can be any non-traditional animal raised on your farm or property.

Change is inevitable. The coronavirus showed us just how fast change alters our routine. Established direct sales channels vanished overnight, limited market times and attendance become the norm, breaks in the supply chains frustrated both buyers and suppliers, and there was an explosion of online marketing platforms and delivery options. This past year the word change was rebranded as a pivot.