Starting a commercial microgreen operation
Have you been thinking of starting a commercial microgreens operations, but dosen't know where to start or how to proceed? We have set up this smal guide on how we recommend people to get started.
#1
Learn the basics of growing microgreens
Before you start selling to restaurants or other customers you need to learn the basics of growing microgreens.
You can start with the established method of using soil and trays or using Nordamarks method with channels and hempfiber. We do suggest most people to test both methods to learn the pro and cons of both methods.
If you would like to test the Nordamark Method you can find our growing kits here.
#2
Speak with your potential customers
The next step is to talk with potential customers before you start to invest to mush time and money in your growing setup. You want to have enough to provide samples (this is crucial)
This step is one of the most important and also maybe the most scariest step for many new growers who are not use to selling. What you want to do is to see if the products you are growing are interesting for the chefs, aslo to see if they already have growers that supply them.
The best way to get into contact with your customers is to call them beforehand between 0900-1030 (not the busy lunch time), tell them your a local grower, ask if they know what microgreens are to get the conversation going. Then ask them if you could come by and show them the greens. The best times is usually before or after lunch time. 0930-1045 to 1300-1545.
Hopefully you will see if they are interested in your products and if you find several customers then you are good to go.
The selling guide for new growers are still in the works, but will proivde you with some pricing, packaing samples, and lots of tips to reduce the amount of work you need to do.
#3
Scaling up your production
After speaking with the customers in your nearby location and you find several of them are interested, now it's time to expand your growing operation a bit more.
Depending on your location and the system you work with we still suggest you have enough to cover your customers plus 1-2 extra customers. This will make sure you can quickly expand if you find the opportunity and also produce extras if they ask.
If you are using the Nordamark Method we suggest you looking into the Testkit 2, which will let you expand fast if needed.
After you have expanded the operation you can now start to talk to the customer again where you talk about price and delivery (exemples can be find in the selling guide). If you are a new grower start with just one customer and make sure you can delivery to it consistenly without any issues before you add more customers. The chefs will expect you to deliver. Keep misstakes at a minimium at the start. This will make everything a lot easier down the road.
#4
Improving and learning
Problems with the product, production, customers, software ect will be a constant factor in your operation. Finding solutions and improving for the next time is important to reduce the amount of hours needed to make the experience enjoyable and profitable.
It seems like there are so mush to learn, everything form production, sales, marketing, business opertion, logistics and mush more. Starting small makes this process mush more manageable, and you can improve in these areas when you have the time.
Focus on the most two most imporantat parts at first, growing a good product, the relations with your customers, this will make everything else easier.
Find more info on our forum, blog or youtube
If you are interested to start a commercial operation using Nordamarks method you are free to contact us at info@nordamark.se
or call us
+46 73 69 66 145