What are some useful strategies for selling to restaurants?
Know the cleaning and post-harvest handling techniques for your specific product to ensure a long shelf-life. Know how to package your product. Chefs don’t usually order by pounds, they order by cases or boxes. So asking chefs to show you their idea of a “box” or other unit of measure is helpful. Chefs may be interested in having you grow specific items for them. Presenting your seed catalogue or list of livestock varieties is one way to develop a plan for the next growing season. Consider asking a local distributor to carry your product or if there are other farms supplying the same restaurant with farm fresh products, then create shared distribution route. Restaurants prefer to consolidate bills if possible. Relationships between growers and chefs require on-going nurturing. Continually ask chefs to evaluate your products, specifically addressing how it was received by patrons, how they liked working with the product, how they liked its appearance, harvest size, taste and the way it
