Robert Hall7 said:I work through a local cooperative and honestly, I couldn't be happier. The co-op brings all the fruit growers together. We can't really find common ground with the vegetable farmers, though—they mostly stick to selling at local farmers' markets while the co-op handles distribution to the big retail chains.
Yeah, this is a spread-out country. Having a shortage of specialized experts is a major headache for me, too. I’ve barely managed to pull together 10 acres, and even then, it's split across four different locations. One of those spots is my own house, so that's not much of an issue. The real problem is the mindset of the neighbors. Once they realized I actually knew how to grow and sell my own produce, they started trying to squeeze me on land prices. I wasn't having any of it. Why would I try to get rich 😂 off someone else's family inheritance? That's just not how we do things here.
No matter how hard anyone tries, the biggest hurdles remain:
1. Quantities are too small for a serious market presence, and production costs are too high.
-Regardless of any prejudices, the only way forward is joining a cooperative or some similar type of collective.
2. Product prices are far too high.
-The reasons are purely objective; the fact is that our input costs are significantly higher than in competing countries.