NFU and commodify marketing

[farming101]

In your local grocery store? Is at ours

https://prairieflour.com/?page_id=22 https://prairieflour.com/?page_id=22
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-flour-mill-sees-rise-in-demand-covid-19-1.5514346 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-flour-mill-sees-rise-in-demand-covid-19-1.5514346

[burnt]

Small local organic mills are doing very well with Covid-19 in more populated areas. Transportation logistics are critical to the ability to effectively compete/ be dependable partner in supply chain. Fractionation of Soy in Bashaw AB... for specialty markets... if folks want to work hard... and have long term vision.... it is not a get rich quick game... but mills in Alberta/SK are gaining domestic market share... they keep out of the spot light. As our population grows... and local branding gains premium domestic markets... opportunities for niche markets certainly exist.

A couple of young chaps not far from here started up an ancient grains flour mill a few years ago. They mill Red Fife and spelt primarily, but have a variety of flours that they market. Mainly to Toronto.

Their grains arrive on B-trains from the Western Canadian prairies.

We get our flour from them and it makes the best bread we have ever had, either light spelt or the Red Fife.

Before the WuFlu hit, they were selling mostly 20 kg bags, some single bags like we buy, but mainly up to whole skids of 40 or 50 bags.

They once mentioned a young baker from Toronto who drives there weekly - about 100 miles - to get his supply. So quite providentially, he was there one time when I was picking up our 2 bags of flour, 1 Red Fife and 1 light spelt, and I got to meet him.

Likely in his mid 30s, he was carrying on as the 3rd generation baker in their family business. His order that week was about 1/2 - 3/4 tonne of flours.

Having a few minutes, I quizzed him about his operation, learned that he bakes pastries, breads,etc., for walk-in customers. He said that it was very competitive and challenging - the margins were tight.

Asked about the wages he paid, he replied that he pays $18.00/hr.

In Toronto. With rent at.....? And housing at.....?

I asked how anyone can make a living in Toronto on those wages - he just shrugged and said he doesn't know how they do it, but that's all he can afford to pay and he had no trouble keeping help. Things did not sound like they were easy in that business.

After the bug hit, the packaging demands for the flour changed dramatically. Instead of pallets of 20 kg bags like the bakeshop owner got, the market moved sharply overnight to 1 kg bags, and then gradually to 2 kg bags as customers became accustomed to and more comfortable with baking their own bread at home.

It takes one heck of a pile of little bags, all packed into cardboard boxes, to replace a skid of 20s. At times, these two young chaps worked into the wee small hours - almost around the clock - to meet the demand when the flu hit and changed their markets.

I've had to wonder what became of the young baker's business.

Next time I get flour, I will try to remember to ask. I hope he is still doing well.

So on one hand, there are two young chaps who were well-positioned because of their entrepreneurial spirit when COVID hit.

And in a closely connected business, another young chap was staying with the tried and true family tradition and likely got "punched in right the bread basket" when the bug hit.

Some business models are more flexible than others. The entrepreneur survives. Monolithic marketing structures must be about the worst type conceivable. I was glad to see the end of the useless Ontario Wheat Board.

They say that only two types of people can dance with elephants - the quick, and the dead.

Just a little slice of the human side of the consumption of the stuff we grow...

[Guest]

and with all the hyped up breeding, money spent , check -offs etc., red fife makes the best bread , imagine that ??

[bucket]

and with all the hyped up breeding, money spent , check -offs etc., red fife makes the best bread , imagine that ??

Yup checkoff dollars that have just went poof with high priced advertising saying this is better than every variety before...

If you can go back to Red Fife and add up the yield increases ...everyone should be at 110bpa...might be an exaggeration but you guys get it...

[wmoebis]

Yup checkoff dollars that have just went poof with high priced advertising saying this is better than every variety before...

If you can go back to Red Fife and add up the yield increases ...everyone should be at 110bpa...might be an exaggeration but you guys get it...

With added investments in irrigation and micro's it will be the norm. How does Red Fife and Marquis work in that case?

[burnt]

and with all the hyped up breeding, money spent , check -offs etc., red fife makes the best bread , imagine that ??

Marquis is very good too, but only available about 1 1/2 hours from here. These guys are about 15 minutes away.

[bucket]

With added investments in irrigation and micro's it will be the norm. How does Red Fife and Marquis work in that case?

Added investments in irrigation.....let me fix that....with subsidized irrigation ....better????

[GDR]

Thanks for posting the graph. And thanks for getting involved in an agriculture related thread.

Isn't it crazy that we are a net importer of dairy products? Export almost nothing.
What country in the world is better suited to produce agricultural products at a cost lower than ours?
Look at Japan, we dehydrate Canadian hay, compress it, stick it in shipping containers, onto a truck, then onto a train, onto a boat, and offload onto a truck or train in Japan, feed it to a Japanese dairy cow, who also eats Canadian grain, on farmland that is incredibly rare and precious, with a shortage of space for the manure and still do all that cheaper than our dairy products thanks to SM? You could fly milk there cheaper than that process.

You need to remember that the graph is in dollars. You might be surprised if that suddenly changed to volume or weight. There are many kinds of cheese that are worth huge dollars that are imported and simply can not be made here. Dont think much milk is imported. To me cheese is orange and called cheddar but I'm pretty primitive. I have swiss friends that had a cheese shop in Switzerland they tell me that cheese made in one valley tastes different than on the other side of the mountain and people pay premiums for one vs the other. I did go to a fundraiser dinner a couple yrs ago that had a cheese appetizer table and everyone raved about it, wasnt anything there I would eat. Lots of expensive specialty dairy products that are not milk.


Get you point on the asian dairy business seems crazy but logistics are not that easy unless you are gonna freeze the milk. No product can be shipped from here to there and be in a mass retail position in that kind of shelf life.