Ginger S. Myers
University of Maryland Extension
Ag Marketing Specialist
Director, MREDC
gsmyers@umd.edu
www.mredc.umd.edu
www.Agmarketing.umd.edu
A
k ti
d d
301-432-2767
CSA
Design
Marketing
g
Customer Profile
Getting people to understand what it is about
 Meat
 Collaborating with health services(hospital,area
health eduction,, fitness centers))
 Find a nitch, fill it. CSA can tweak it's program to
make it unique.
 Down town DC, under served neighbor hoods,
Large Condos as single target.
 Any group of 30+urban
 Increasing public awareness about benefits of
buying local, supporting local farmers, making
healthy choices in their food supply.
 Drop offs at institutions,
institutions businesses
businesses, hospitals.
hospitals



Getting people to understand what it is, recruiting new
members
Shareholder understanding of farm risks.

Items that are available during parts of the year. In Western
Maryland, the challenge can be the farm location and
weather.

Weather,
h economy and
d getting
i people
l to understand
d
d the
h
concept. Seasonality is lost on people and it takes the first
season or two to get people educated. Strawberries aren't
available in August etc. They have total misconception of
what they are getting and when. It doesn't
doesn t matter how much
you try to explain, they don't get it until they experience it.

Steady Production, Taking on too many shares.

A major limiting factor for our CSA is lack of farm labor.
There is more demand than we can fill without additional
help. Using interns who want to live and work on a farm
for the summer ends up bogged down in MD State Labor
regulations which normally apply to migrant farm labor.

I have heard a LOT of customers who have tried CSA and
are disappointed in their share. We have to work to define
what makes us different from other farms. Do not get
involved with CSA until yyou are sure that yyou can deliver
on your promises.

Regulations and restrictions regarding value-added
products,
p
oducts, eggs, dairy
da y p
products.
oducts.

Other farms that see CSA as a market share stealer at
farmers markets. Farmers will try to block CSA pick-up at a
market in hopes of preserving their own business.
 It’s
not jjust about the vegetables
g
anyy more.
It probably never was.
 CSACSA
One size,
O
i
structure, product
d
mix
i d
does
not fit all.
 Quality
is number one, price is down about
3rd or 4th on the list with shareholders.
 CSA
farming requires both excellent
production and management skills.
skills