One of the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s main marketing goals is to increase opportunities for South Carolina agriculture producers. Some of the ways it accomplishes this is through market development by building relationships with growers and buyers in the state and regionally.
In an effort to better do this, the SCDA held the second annual Certified South Carolina Grower Buyer Meet Up in mid-March, knowing a successful grower-buyer connections event can lead to sales relationships.
“This was an opportunity for a variety of growers and producers with a variety of production capabilities to meet and make connections with a variety of product sourcing specialists,” said Katie Pfeiffer, director of merchandising for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. “We had buyers attend representing food service, wholesale, school districts and retail operations.”
At the event, growers, producers and specialty foods vendors each had a table situated around the perimeter of the room. Buyers walked the trade show floor and interacted with appropriate suppliers.
“This is a smaller version of a trade show that’s specifically for South Carolina growers and producers, and we do include some specialty food vendors,” Pfeiffer said. “Buyers range from local retail operations, grocery stores, wholesalers, food service industry and available for anyone working in produce buying.”
Among the attendees were representatives from Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Marvin’s Produce, Parker Farms, Senn Bros. Produce, Tomato Vine and many others.
“We had a really good turnout with about 25 exhibitors and attendees representing about 25 different companies,” Pfeiffer said. “We did it in the afternoon and it went really well for people. It was really positive for making connections, and even more helpful for our smaller growers. It’s beneficial for them to meet all these buyers in one place leading up to the summer season.”
The show facilitated knowledge exchange and understanding between growers and buyers, addressing business and communication needs on both sides of the table that can facilitate successful long-term relationships.
“We hope that growers and buyers were able to discuss solutions to specific impediments and opportunities in production and sourcing, which can lead to more flexibility on each side of the relationship,” Pfeiffer said. “In order to set the stage for future grower-buyer collaborations, we collected feedback from both exhibitors and attendees.”
The feedback from attendees proved that strong relationships were made. In an end-of-show survey, 56 percent of exhibitors reported that they developed at least four to six buyer connections participating in the event. On a 1-5 scale, 100 percent of attendees reported a four or higher rating of the event overall, and 94 percent of exhibitors reported that they were at least very likely to attend this event in the future.
“We will use the feedback from all the attendees and exhibitors to continue to provide this free event to our local food community and make improvements necessary to make this a worthwhile event to all involved,” Pfeiffer said. “Next year, I think we will include some sort of presentation as well.”
