Agricultural Trades Show
The following news item is being sent to DACF subscribers as a courtesy.
The 2020 Maine Agricultural Trades Show occurs Tuesday, January 14, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday January 15 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Thursday, January 16 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center, Augusta Maine.
Read more show press and promotions and view a list of show activities and venue maps at www.maine.gov/dacf/agtradesshow
Are you interested in learning what it takes to sell food to hospitals, colleges, schools, and other institutions? Have you heard that you need a large amount of product, food safety plans and crazy amounts of insurance for someone to even take your call? Join the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County at the 2020 Maine Agricultural Trades Show for a series of Baskets to Pallets presentations aimed at helping farmers understand the opportunities and requirements to successfully participate in wholesale market channels.
Over the course of January 15th and 16th attendees can choose from five different Baskets to Pallets sessions aimed at learning how to scale up to meet demands and determine their cost of production, grading and packing of quality produce for institutional markets, understanding consumer trends, and creating a brand and sell sheet. Each day will feature opportunities to apply the concepts to your own farm, as well as panels of well-respected Maine farmers and buyers who pride themselves on supporting Maine farms. Attendees will leave with tools to help them move forward or refine their approach if they are already engaged in sales to institutional markets. Resource providers will be on-site to answer questions and brainstorm next steps. You can find a schedule for the workshops here: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/ard/market_promotion/docs/basketstopallets-agenda.pdf
Pre-registration is not required but is encouraged. Pre-registrants will be entered to win a 3-hour, 1:1 business consultation from Maine Farmland Trust at your farm or the Belfast Maine Farmland Trust office to help you with your farm goals and assessing your market. You could also win a discounted ticket to the ‘Selling More Maine Foods Conference’ for value-added food producers on March 19, 2020 at the USM Abromson Center in Portland.
To register for any Baskets to Pallets course please click here. For more information please contact Yvette.Meunier@maine.gov or (207) 592-0640.
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