They should, however, step back and take a broader, longer-term view.
For assurance of survival in farming, nothing beats satisfied customers. That has not been the highest priority of supply management, so it's a system sitting on quicksand, especially because its supply-managing powers depend on consistent political support in a global political climate where increasing trade and reducing protectionism are priorities.
Martin Gooch of the George Morris Centre has been preaching about value chain management, but has made virtually no progress with supply-managed commodities. Others have been willing to give his ideas a try, including Vineland Growers Cooperative.They started with peaches. The trials last year indicate that the partners in marketing peaches can profit by increasing the sweetness of peaches and by adding colour standards for grading.
A combination of foil laid down between rows of trees to reflect sunlight and summer pruning increased the sweetness of the peaches. They are normally graded by size and in this case, they were also sorted by colour.
The most attractive peaches were graded Platinum for which growers received a $3 premium.
The trials also indicated that leaf thinning also works to improve peach quality, but it costs $2.40 per tree which is too much. Foil costs about 50 cents per tree and summer pruning, at six minutes per tree, about $1.13 per tree.
The trials also included different handling for three pickings; in one case, all three pickings were put into cold storage and held until all of them could be graded and packaged at the same time, which was 10 days after the first picking. In another trial, comparisons were made between grading the peaches “hot” from the orchard with grading after cool storage.The partners in the trials were Chris Andrewes of Andrewes Farms Ltd. and George Lepp of Lepp Family Farms/Niagara Shoreline Growers, the Vineland Growers Coop Ltd. and Loblaws.
The study began with a visit to California where they asked about factors influencing yield and quality and with customer interviews in stores to determine the key factors influencing their peach-buying decisions.
Visual appeal and eating experience were ranked top among 15 factors and, while price was important, it was not as important as the top two.
The peach industry intends to build on last year’s trials for this year’s harvest and marketing.
Michael Ecker, manager of Vineland Growers Coop Ltd., said nectarine trials will be added this season.
Imagine what might be done with special dairy and poultry products, designed and delivered to delight customers with the factors they identify as most important. That approach is guaranteed to be longer-lasting than total reliance on vigorous and persistent political support for supply management.
