New University Of California Website Helps Growers With Business And Marketing
November 10, 2009 University of California Cooperative Extension has launched a new website at http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/farmbusinessandmarketplace to help new and established small- to medium-scale growers of fresh produce with the business and marketing aspects of their operations.
UCCE has a long history of providing research-based agricultural production information to California growers. The new website has been developed by the UCCE farm management advisor in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties, Laura Tourte, to extend information about equally important factors of successful farming – business plans, budgeting, managing cash flow, targeting particular segments of the market, and keeping customers satisfied.
The website is designed for people who are considering farming, and those who have been in the business for a while and wish to refresh or enhance their skills. It was designed with Central Coast farmers in mind, but is applicable in most parts of the state. The site aggregates farm management and marketing information from the University of California and other universities and agricultural affiliates from around the nation.
“The intent was to reduce the amount of time it would take farmers to search for reliable information on the Web,” Tourte says. “I devoted months to evaluating and compiling the best resources for Central Coast farmers, and developing one ‘go-to’ site, which they can access at any time of day or night to find business and marketing information.”
