Guest guest Posted December 19, 2001 Report Share Posted December 19, 2001 I thought I'd show a couple of emails on the CSA discussion group that Pancaratna guided us to. They are discussing pricing norms, extent of margin and profits, and when or not to get rid of troublesome members who complain of price and quality. --- Leigh wrote: > What is the size of the share? Our two person is > under $16 a week. > in 2002 we're shortening the season slightly but > keeping the same > price. This is a question discussed on this list > every year. > Pricing. Its one I think we should revisit each > year, too. But > realize that there is no 'national' price. Too many > variables. > The economy of the area, > amount and variety of vegetables. > whether it is picked up at the farm or delivered to > a site. > How far away is the site? > is there a labor component with the share > is there a market for csa's in the area > other benefits of joining > And we should also think of our csa's like seed > companies. I'm > willing to pay Johnny's higher prices (for many of > my seeds) because > their service is excellent, seeds are high quality, > and they have > that really knockdead helpful catalog. I think our > customers are > willing to do the same thing. A CSA that has good > vegetables, > operated in a professional manner, and works hard to > build community > can probably charge higher prices. Much of what a > CSA is, are these > intangibles. > > With our price, $310 for a two person, I'm happy > with it, though it > probably is low, I believe, because we are so > established, I could > charge significantly more and still fill up my share > quotas, But > then, I've never been very money oriented. Sometimes > I feel, by > societies standards, I'm foolish for not maximizing > our profits. But > then, on the other hand, maybe societies standards > are all wrong. > Anyway, I think the key is that you charge enough > that you make a > living from what you do, and that (and this is a > phenomenon that has > been commented on in the past) you are charging > enough that by the > end of the season you aren't angry at your > shareholders because you > are working so hard for not enough money. > > I am, though, significantly raising the price of our > flower share. I > like to grow flowers but for the amount of work and > expense I was > basically putting flowers on people's tables with > money out of my own > pocket. > > Also, we're raising the price of the share picked up > at the farm. > While it seems logical that it should be cheaper to > get your > vegetables right at the farm, I found that I was > spending more time > per share on farm shares, than delivered shares > (yes, most of this > time was spent visiting but still.... there is a lot > of work to do on > Saturday and talking to shareholders for 4 or 5 > hours, doesn't get my > work done. > -- > (\ (\ (\ (\ (\ > {|||8- {|||8- {|||8- {|||8- {|||8- > (/ (/ (/ (/ (/ > http://www.bullrunfarm.com/ > I don't know what an average is, but I can tell you what ours was for the 2001 season: $26.20/week for 25 weeks for 2 family; $15.80 for family share and $9.60 for individual share. We did an interesting experiment last season, however. We loosely tracked what retail prices were for organics in the Princeton, NJ area and found (not really to our surprise) that the retail value for our family share could be as high as $100 PER WEEK!!! What that means for our bottom line is that some weeks (especially during Jersey tomato season) our produce has a below wholesale value - our customers are getting too much of a really good thing. Needless to say, prices for the shares are going up for the 2002 season. Sherry D. Watershed Organic Farm Pennington, NJ Check out Shopping and Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at or bid at http://auctions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 20, 2001 Report Share Posted December 20, 2001 > I thought I'd show a couple of emails on the CSA > discussion group that Pancaratna guided us to. They > are discussing pricing norms, extent of margin and > profits, and when or not to get rid of troublesome > members who complain of price and quality. Interesting you should bring this up now. One of my assigned tasks for today is getting permission from the temple president to post an ad at the temple offering flower shares for $108 from June 15th to Oct 15th, for which you get 2 vases of flowers a week. Could be for your personal Deities, or for a set of Deities in the temple. Use as a Christmas present for the Deities (yes, I know, way too late for this year, but those years roll around pretty quickly). Even better than posting an ad in the temple, getting an ad in the mailer sent to the temple mailing list. (Anyone know what flowers would Fed Ex well?:-) That would be what is refered to in as a flower share. At an organic growerrs conference that used NV facilities, CSAs (community supported agriculture) were definately the hot topic. The guy who's set up sounded best to me, sold veggie shares, but also flower and honey shares (the honey coming from a different grower) and the shares were picked up at a farmer's market they sold at, so the "visiting" issue was minimized (we stopped doing roadside sales for that very reason - not having enough volume to justify a full time salesperson), and the customers could check out their share, then supplement their needs by purchases from the FM itself. I like the concept in general, as it is a way for a prosperous temple with tourist income to subsidize local growers, by buying shares. Lets the grower concentrate on growing instead of sales, which is teh hardest part in agriculture, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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