Harvesting & Processing

[Nigel Clement]

Hi,

I'm hoping to ultimately go commercial and was wondering if anyone can point me to sites which deal with harvesting, processing and packaging. Thanks in advance.

[TCLynx]

of the fish or of the veggies?

[Nigel Clement]

Cripes! Sorry, veggies and I'm also interested in the fish processing. Trying to determine whether I should do the fish processing on a small scale but definitely veggie harvesting and processing. When do you harvest lettuces for example, then how should I store and package. All inputs would be welcomed.

[Chris Smith]

I have researched extensively and have not found any site that deals with specific harvesting, processing and packaging. I have found that these issues will change depending on crop and market. I began selling live(roots attached) lettuce for a flat rate per head to a health food store and have evolved into selling bags of mixed variety directly to my neighborhood.

I believe that it is essential to prepare a proper business plan which will force you to look at what you plan to sell and how to sell it as well as other issues. Growing crops aquaponically is the easy part but selling for a profit is not so easy. What crops are you intending to sell to what market? The same crop can be processed, packaged, and sold in different markets for varying returns. It is important to do research to find the best market(s) and focus on it(them) for a particular crop.

You need to start a small system and start test cropping for your climate. Test cropping will show you what works best in your area and gives you something to show to potential markets. It is nearly impossible to sell a crop without some sort of sample of what you can produce.

Keep in mind that processing will likely require properly permitted facilities to meet your local health codes(more research). Health Department approved processing facilities and commercial kitchens are expensive to build. You can rent a commercial kitchen but it will cut into your bottom line.

Look into loopholes in your local health code. Where we live we cannot process and bag vegetables without an approved vegetable processing facility, but we can bag at sale time without violating code. We invite our neighborhood onto our farm 3 times a week for sales and bag lettuce on demand. We give free tours to new customers and educate them on the benefits of aquaponics which usually hooks them. We have been selling out each weeks planting now that we have exposure to our neighborhood.

Try establishing relationships with local produce distributors. They can tell you what is in demand and not. We got in with a distributor that gave us several crops that were not grown locally and commanded a high price. They told us how their clients wanted produce packaged. We focused on those crops for some time. After a while we decided to sell directly to our neighborhood and cut out the middle man for more profit.

 

[Nigel Clement]

Chris, much appreciated. If you take a gander at my page you'll see that I've tried a variety of different crops to get the hang of what grows best, how it grows and what are the expected parameters I have to deal with and so on. I'm grateful for your response as it tells me in some ways I'm heading in the right direction. I've literally 5 minutes ago found a national agri processor here in my country so I'm starting there and will be doing further inquiries and exploration. Thanks ever so much.