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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MARCH 2020


Value-added marketing critical to success Agroforestry is an emerging field that demands consumer education


by MYRNA STARK LEADER


ABBOTSFORD – “The public is becoming more familiar with trees and tree bark ingredients in different products,” says James Street, manager of the food and beverage processing team at the BC Ministry of Agriculture in Victoria. Speaking at the Pacific


Agriculture Show in Abbotsford at the end of January, Street said growers should consider using a six- step product design approach to reduce costs and maximize margins before getting started. Street said that


understanding the market is step one. Are you going to be a price taker or a price maker? Is the product something consumers will want or will it require educating them to


make sales? That latter is more challenging but not without opportunity, he says, noting that chefs and brewers are looking for more innovative products such as spruce tips that offer unique, natural flavours. Consumers also want local


products. Agroforestry products can also check the boxes when it comes to reducing food miles, tapping into the foodways of Indigenous peoples, and experiences like foraging for items such as rosehips, fiddleheads and wild mushrooms. “If there is one image you


take away today, know the technology adoption curve,” says Street, pointing out that 2.5% of people are innovators, 13.5% are early adopters, 34% are the early majority, 34% the late majority and 16% will lag behind. Understanding this can help put public interest in a new product into perspective. Street encouraged


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entrepreneurs to map out the competition by researching similar products and plotting the products on a graph with price point on the vertical axis and quality (fair, good, high- end) on the horizontal axis. High-quality, high-priced products will be in the upper right quadrant, while lower- end items will be in the bottom left. Although most competitors are likely to fall in the middle, the information enables product creators to determine where to position their new item and brand. Street says people need to


know the problem their product is trying to solve. Is it


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a fresh flavour for winter soup, or making cooking easier for those with little time? Their products should offer a solution to the problem. “Do a capacity check as


well,” he warns. “Don’t assume that you have time to do all the steps in creating your product.”


Recipe development is


critical. “One of the issues is consistency of the product,” he notes. It should take into account


the preparation method, such as cooking or dehydration, as


well as opportunities to scale production. The flavour profile, mouth-feel and texture (if it’s edible), and the cost margins are also important. He advises running scenarios like adding 25% to the cost of an ingredient or packaging to see if the idea is still feasible. Once there is a product, test, test and test some more. “Prego did 56 types of spaghetti sauce and they found a theme – that people wanted chunky spaghetti sauce – that boosted their spot in the marketplace,” says


TOO much regulation


for example, make year-round use of underutilized labour capacity. “Diversify but don’t de-


worsify,” he told the audience. “Don’t take time away from your core business to put everything into your new venture.” Production aspects are the


next consideration. “I always get asked, ‘What should I grow?’ when the real question is, ‘What can I grow that will sell?’” says Powell. Would-be agroforestry operators need to know which plant hardiness zones they’re in, but Powell cautions that much of the data was compiled 40 or 50 years ago and doesn’t account for the more variable climate. “Hardiness zones also don’t consider microclimates,” he adds. “And, as trees and shrubs grow, they start to modify the microclimate – shade, wind flow and frost levels. … You


likely want something adapted to a wide range of climate zones.” Other production considerations include key


Street. The final consideration is


scale, which includes market channels, store placement and shelf life, particularly for edibles when retailers are wanting longer shelf life for their margins. Street says that no matter


the product, product creators need to continually ask their customers if they liked what they got, was it worth what they paid, how it’s being used and what could be improved. These questions enable analysis and continuous improvement.


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and how the components will interact. He suggests mapping out the interactions in the seedling, intermediate and mature stages of growth.


“BC is the most regulated province in Canada and we have no intention of


letting anyone catch up soon.” Agroforestry consultant GEORGE POWELL


infrastructure, resources and regulations.


“BC is the most regulated


province in Canada and we have no intention of letting anyone catch up soon,” says Powell. Step four is choosing a


production system. Powell says to keep the focus on the original purpose of the system, its individual components – shrubs, trees, livestock, secondary crops –


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There’s no sense planting seedlings if they will all be trampled by livestock, he says, and producers also need to consider where livestock will go once the trees are mature. Powell’s last point focused on determining what the operation requires and the supports available to sustain its development. There is a lot more information available today than there was a decade ago, but the sheer volume also presents a challenge. When he started on Twitter about 13 years ago, there was less then a half-dozen tweets about agroforestry. Today, there are 3,000. “It’s become how do you


put information in context?” he says.


While he hasn’t seen a great


increase in the number of agroforestry operations, Powell says there is potential for agroforestry in an ever changing ag landscape.


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