Arrangement puts eggs, milk, veggies from Mennonite, Amish farmers on store shelves
DesMoines Register (link no longer available)
By Jerry Perkins
Wellman, Ia. – Farmers farm. Marketers market.
In the case of some Amish and Mennonite farmers in southeast Iowa and the marketing firm Kalona Organics, the twain shall meet to bridge the gap between producers and urban consumers.
Organic food has been the most rapidly growing sector in the food industry for several years, and demand for local foods, organic and otherwise, also is on the rise.
Bill Evans, 46, founded Kalona Organics in 2005 to fill that niche with the milk, eggs and vegetables produced by his farmer-neighbors in southeast Iowa.
This month, Kalona Organics will begin supplying Hy-Vee stores with organic produce, including cucumbers and zucchini and eventually, tomatoes, cantaloupe and squash.
“We’re trying to get food as close to natural as possible from the farmer to the consumer,” Evans said. “We’re moving really fast. The organic field is expanding so fast, we’re kind of getting dragged along with it.”
Evans, who has lived in the Wellman area for 11 years, formed his connection with Amish and Mennonite farmers when he consulted them on selling milk and dairy products of Farmers’ All Natural Creamery. He eventually became part-owner of the cooperative, which is majority-owned by 29 Amish and Mennonite dairy producers in Washington and Johnson counties. On Friday , the creamery’s dairy products will debut at eight Super Target stores in Iowa.
Evans is involved in other ventures to tap into demand for local foods:
– He markets eggs for Farmers Hen House, a privately owned egg processor that packs 30,000 dozen organic eggs a day produced from cage-free hens. The eggs are purchased from Amish and Mennonite farmers in southeast Iowa and Tampico, Ill., and the eggs are sold in Dahl’s stores and Hy-Vee stores.
– He has formed Cultural Revolution, a yogurt company he started with two partners in Wisconsin. The yogurt is sold in Hy-Vee and food co-ops.
Sales by Kalona Organics totaled $4.6 million in 2006, the first full year for the company, Evans said. He projects Kalona Organics’ 2007 sales at $6.5 million, an increase of more than 40 percent from the previous year.
“Next year will be our big year,” he said. “We’re just getting our yogurt off the ground after falling six months behind our expectations. Organic sales are growing 20 percent a year in the U.S., and we should stay ahead of that.”
The next step in the evolution of Kalona Organics will be organic meat, Evans said.
Kathy McCarthy, sales manager for Kalona Organics, worked as a produce manager for Hy-Vee for three years in its Marion store, where Kalona Organics test-marketed its organic vegetables last year.
The test was successful, said Hy-Vee’s Marion store director, Kevin Hormann.
“We decided last year to test the appeal for locally grown products,” Hormann said. “Usually, when we offer locally grown produce, it sells well. The perception is there among consumers that it’s better.”
Sales of organic foods totaled $20 billion last year after growing steadily for a decade, according to the Organic Consumers Association.
When sales of so-called “all-natural” foods – which are not regulated or certified like organic foods – are added to organic, the total is close to $60 billion, said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the association.
“We’re talking some serious money,” he said.
Much organic food is imported, however. Companies like Kalona Organics are attracting consumers who want food grown locally.
Tim Schlitzer of FoodRoutes Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes community-based food systems, said local foods account for only 2 percent of the food sold in the United States, but sales are increasing rapidly.
“In the last year, it’s really blossomed,” Schlitzer said.
Cummins, of the Organic Consumers Association, said the local food movement is “going to be huge as the energy crisis intensifies and we have to spend more and more money on transporting our food.”
The trend is also being pushed by consumers who want to support local economic development, sustainable agriculture and family farms, and by gourmet chefs, said Mallory Smith, state coordinator for the eight Buy Fresh Buy Local chapters in Iowa.
“Farmers are really good at production, and some have a handle on finances,” Smith said. “But often, they are not very good at marketing.”
She saw more demand for companies like Kalona Organics that will do the marketing for organic and local food producers, who can then concentrate on doing what they do best – raising high-quality food.
Perry Yoder, an Old Order Amish farmer who sells milk to the creamery and eggs to Farmers Hen House, appreciates having a bridge to the consumer.
“It’s a great advantage for me,” said Yoder. “We can pool our products and they’re responsible for the marketing.”
Perry and Rebecca Yoder and their six children farm 90 acres of their own and rent another 32 acres for their corn, hay and oat crops. They milk 34 Holsteins, and their 5,000 laying hens produce 4,200 eggs a day for Farmers Hen House.
Mark Miller, who has owned Farmers Hen House for seven years, also likes the marketing and sales arrangement he has with Kalona Organics.
“We pack eggs,” Miller said. “We don’t need to be going out and doing the selling and advertising. They’re already out there doing the milk. They just as easily can be doing the eggs as well.”
Joanna Mouming, marketing manager for Kalona Organics, said marketing Farmers’ All Natural Creamery dairy products and Farmers Hen House eggs is a natural fit with Kalona Organics’ produce.
“It all comes from small family farms,” she said. “One product tends to lead to another one.”
Evans said there are other advantages. “If you’re sending a truck half-filled with milk to Atlanta, you might as well have the other half filled with eggs,” he said.
- Farm Editor Jerry Perkins can be reached at (515) 284-8456 or [email protected]
