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The parking lot of an Upstate manufacturing plant might not be the first place the
average farmer thinks about when looking for new places to sell their produce.
But for Robert Jackson II, it s a bit of a sweet spot.
Jackson, a second-generation grower with an upstart farm in Lyman, sets up each Friday
during the growing season in a center courtyard at Duncan s Draexlmaier. The company,
and it s more than 1,100 employees, are a key supplier for BMW s South Carolina operations.
Every week Jackson loads a pickup truck bed full of goodness from his family farm.
He hauls everything from tomatoes, squash and broccoli to peaches, apples, green beans
and watermelons to Draexlmaier, where he conducts a brisk business.
The relationship with Draexlmaier has been an important market for Jackson over the
past three years, along with his weekly sales at Spartanburg and Greenville farmers
markets.
He said it almost happened by accident, when he was approached by a Draexlmaier employee
who turned out to be a benefits manager for the international firm.
She asked if I d be willing to stop by the plant in Duncan and sell to their employees
there, Jackson said. I d never heard of them, but wasn't going to pass up the opportunity,
so I said sure.
Draexlmaier had been working on internal employee wellness initiatives for years,
according to company spokesman Ralph Schwarz, and had been hosting produce growers
on the company s Upstate campus since 2013 as a way to steer employees toward healthier
eating habits.
Jackson said he showed up that first Friday, took one look at the sprawling plant
and realized he d need to bring an entire truck s worth of produce from then on.
It s been a tremendous opportunity for me, Jackson said. We re just 15 minutes from
the roadside stand out at my dad s place, but we re able to bring that stuff here
and sell to folks who d probably never find us normally.
Schwarz said many employees take advantage of the onsite stand to stock up on their
weekend backyard barbecue eats, and he said the relationship has worked out to both
Jackson s and the company s advantage.
A different kind of business model
Jackson s direct-to-consumer approach isn t the only way Upstate farmers are experimenting
with their business models.
Jay Moore, a horticulture instructor at Spartanburg Community College, works with
everything from multi-generational farmers to backyard hobby growers dreaming of one
day turning pro.
He said traditional outlets like farmers markets and coops have a strong presence
in the Upstate, and remain good options for farmers looking to sell their wares.
The problem? Farmers who sell direct to consumers have to master multiple skills the
tools, knowledge and tricks needed to coax tasty fruits and veggies from the earth,
the ability to quickly and efficiently harvest them and then sell them to end users,
like restaurants or consumers.
We preach that if you re doing this from a business standpoint, you need to know
exactly where you re going to sell something before you ever plant it, Moore said.
But that can be easier said than done, sometimes.
Smaller farmers also tend to focus on crop diversity, Moore said, growing many different
varieties of fruits and vegetables as a way to ward off some of the disadvantages
that come with large-scale mono-culture. A bad cold snap at the wrong time can devastate
a peach harvest Jackson said his father s peach harvest suffered greatly in three
successive years during the 1980s, putting a big strain on the family s finances and
a 20-minute hailstorm can wipe out an entire crop of corn.
The problem that comes with growing a lot of different stuff is that you ve got to
juggle planting and harvesting times, and that complicates getting that to market,
Moore said.
Moore said he sees part of the solution in community-supported agriculture, a movement
that s planted roots in Greenville, but remains largely untapped in Spartanburg. The
basic idea is that farmers sell shares of their crop to the public think of it as
a kind of weekly subscription in exchange for money up front.
It helps farmers by reducing the uncertainties in their cash flow, and consumers are
certain of a hearty box of produce each week.
Some farms are the beneficiaries of the farm-to-table movement, Moore said, and deal
direct with restaurants like The Kennedy in Spartanburg to arrange weekly pickups
to supply the raw ingredients chefs need, but that market, too, remains largely untapped,
he said.
He said there s tremendous opportunity for the grower who can work out an arrangement
with a high-volume restaurant, like a college or manufacturing firm s cafeteria.
Food hubs to the rescue?
Sallie Hambright-Belue co-owns Cowpens Thicketty Mountain Farms with husband Brent
Belue. She said each grew up in farming families before moving to the work-a-day world.
They realized they wanted to return to working the land and made that move on a part-time
basis in 2012.
Hambright-Belue said Thicketty Mountain has spent its early years experimenting with
methods and markets, and found some success early on selling to restaurants, which
now include The Kennedy.
But the sheer volume of time and effort the logistical end of the business required
left the pair looking for another solution. She said at least part of the fix may
come in the form of South Carolina s food hub network.
It s an easy idea to illustrate: Farmers focus on growing and harvesting their crop
while a distribution hub handles things like marketing and order fulfillment for places
like restaurants.
Hambright-Belue said the Upstate s hub is the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery in Greenville.
Selling to the hub means Thicketty Mountain sacrifices some revenue versus selling
direct to consumers, but it eases Hambright-Belue s headaches and frees up extra time
that can be used to plant and harvest additional crops. She said she s attempting
to transition all her current restaurant customers to buy from the Swamp Rabbit.
It s been somewhat slow going because it s just getting off the ground, but we can
already see ways this might end up helping everybody, Hambright-Belue said. Now, we
need to get consumers and restaurants on board.