Released: October 03, 2003

Chefs Give Advice on Selling Locally-Grown Food Products

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Farmers who market food products locally and those who are thinking about it can now get advice from chefs and restaurant owner/managers who specialize in offering cuisine that features locally-grown foods.

The advice comes via research results released this summer by a multi-state U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded project (the North Central Initiative for Small Farm Profitability). The group that agreed to serve as survey recipients was the 10-year-old Chefs Collaborative – a 1,000-plus member group that is the only national organization of its kind.

“Chefs Collaborative members don’t represent all restaurants. The group describes itself with words like ‘socially responsible’ and ‘environmentally sound.’ So, supporting local farmers fits right in with its goals. Still, Chefs Collaborative members undoubtedly are the nation’s experts on the good and bad points of buying local ingredients. They have the most experience,” said Jana Beckman, coordinator of the Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops at Kansas State University.

Beckman believes the survey also uncovered another reason the group agreed to participate.

“These chefs and other restaurant food buyers have a vested interest in helping local farmers succeed. They said they want access to more quantity and variety in local, seasonal and artisan ingredients,” she said. “As a result, their opinions will just be a start, but should be really useful to farmers who are preparing to approach a food establishment about buying locally.”

The USDA project’s initial analyses of survey responses included these findings:

* 73 percent agreed or strongly agreed that buying locally-grown food has had a positive impact on bottom-line profits.

* Only 11 percent mentioned the seasonality of locally-grown foods as a problem.

“The chefs may be featuring a seasonal menu – actually promoting that they can provide cuisine with ingredients that are always new and different and always at their peak of freshness,” Beckman said.

* 81 percent said that, all things being equal, they prefer buying from a farmer – not a farmers market or a food distributor with locally-grown offerings (although 71 percent had shopped at a farmers market and 54 percent had purchased local products from a distributor).

* Rating characteristics on a scale from 1 (not important) to 10 (extremely important) the respondents said what they’re looking for in food purchases is freshness (with an average score of 9.4 out of 10), guaranteed consistent quality (9.2), food safety (8.8), product knowledge (8.1), ability to deliver quantity needed (7.9), guaranteed satisfaction (7.1) how the product is delivered (6.7), when the product is delivered (6.1), price (6.1), and the product’s being processed/packaged according to need (5.6).

* When the chefs were asked why they continue to buy local foods, their philosophy on “sustainable cuisine” remained the No. 1 reason. Other top reasons they cited included better food quality (39 percent), fresher food (25 percent), the fact that they’d come to enjoy their contact with farmers (20 percent), their patrons’ requests or expectations (14 percent), better taste (12 percent), and the availability of unique or specialty products (12 percent).

* The group said they’d increase their local purchases if more products were available in their area (38 percent), if their area offered more product variety (32 percent), if locally-grown products had better or more competitive pricing (22 percent), or if they had better distribution or delivery methods (21 percent). Two answers tied for last place: more consistent quality in products and more organically-grown products (both 9 percent).

* In citing the most difficult challenges or obstacles they must overcome in buying locally-grown food, the group put distribution/delivery in first place (43 percent), followed by reliable/consistent supply (24 percent) and competitive/better pricing (23 percent).

“Researcher Brad Zumwalt at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln described ‘distribution and delivery’ as ‘getting the right product in the right quantity to the right place at the right time,’” Beckman said. “The response he found most telling said that small local farmers don’t seem to realize the impact on the restaurant if they don’t show up with the product they’ve promised.”

The full 39-page report, called “Approaching Foodservice Establishments With Locally-Grown Products,” is available on the Web (http://www.foodmap.unl.edu/index.asp).

Zumwalt’s conclusion is “there is a real need for a clearinghouse or database of locally-grown products to provide simple and easy access for interested foodservice (or retail) personnel ... (which) also will help a restaurant or institution find backup sources for products they are buying when their current purveyor’s supply is limited.”

Beckman said Kansas growers already are building such a database by entering information on a “Kansas Locally-Grown Food Directory” Website that her center maintains (http://www.kansasfood.org). Restaurants and consumers both can search the database by county and food product. The listed products already vary from bison and free-range eggs to apple cider and pumpkins.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Kathleen Ward, Communications Specialist
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News