UT Center for Profitable Agriculture Coordinates Event for Entrepreneurs
COLUMBIA, Tenn. – Direct farm marketers and value-added agriculture entrepreneurs interested in learning more about selling products to wholesale buyers such as grocery stores, restaurants and institutions are encouraged to attend an upcoming educational program conducted by the University of Tennessee Center for Profitable Agriculture. The Chattanooga MarketReady Buyer Tour will take place on Thursday, April 25.
Participants will meet at a designated location in the Chattanooga area prior to beginning the tour. Participants may drive themselves to each stop, but carpooling is encouraged. For more detailed information on times and logistics, visit the website tiny.utk.edu/CPAEvents.
“The purpose of these tours is to bring small groups of direct farm marketers and value-added entrepreneurs to various food buyer locations in order to network with buyers and learn more about the opportunities, methods and challenges of selling products to these marketing channels,” says Megan Bruch Leffew, marketing specialist with the Center for Profitable Agriculture.
Previous food buyer tours hosted by the Center for Profitable Agriculture were held last fall in Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee. These Tennessee buyer tours are a direct result of collaboration between the Center for Profitable Agriculture and the MarketReady Producer Training Program on behalf of the Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative.
Alaina Boyd, an extension assistant with the Center, worked to coordinate this event with collaborators across the state including the joint UT-Tennessee State University Extension office in Hamilton County. “These food buyer tours offer our producers a chance to network with wholesale buyers and form valuable connections in their local communities. While the tours especially target value-added dairy producers, all interested producers and technical assistance providers are welcome to participate,” says Boyd.
The Chattanooga MarketReady Buyer Tour is free to attend, but pre-registration is required. Space is limited, so interested producers are encouraged to register online now at tiny.utk.edu/ChattBuyerTour. Registration is open until spaces are filled or until five business days before the event.
The food buyer tour series was made possible through the Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative with funding made possible, in part, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. Additional information about the Southeastern Dairy Business Innovation Initiative can be found at sdbii.tennessee.edu.
Please contact Alaina Boyd at acboyd@utk.edu with questions.
The Center for Profitable Agriculture is a partnership between the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. The Center has worked for more than 25 years to help farmers analyze and develop value-added agriculture enterprises. Learn more about the Center at cpa.tennessee.edu.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.