Working with Wholesale Buyers: A Marketing Workshop for Farmers

This workshop is designed for farmers and ranchers who are currently selling or interested in selling wholesale. Click here to sign up and receive the webinar link.

Learn how to effectively communicate your farm’s availability to wholesale buyers in this interactive virtual workshop. Whether you’re new to wholesale or looking to improve your buyer relationships, this session will help you create clear, professional availability lists and marketing materials that make it easy for buyers to say yes.

Facilitated by Judith Redmond (Full Belly Farm) and Gisele Herren (Vitis & Ovis Farm), this workshop features insights from buyers, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what wholesale buyers actually need from farmers.

What You’ll Learn

From the Buyer’s Perspective:

• How new farmers can get their foot in the door with wholesale accounts
• What information buyers need to place orders confidently
• How buyers evaluate pricing, product quality, consistency, and communication reliability
• Preferred formats, frequency, and communication styles for availability lists

Practical Skills:

• How to create effective availability lists
• Developing point-of-purchase materials
• Pricing strategies for wholesale success
• Making your farm easy to buy from

Workshop Structure

This hands-on workshop includes:

• Panel presentations from Spork Food Hub and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op
• Real farmer examples
• Small group discussions around how to price and develop wholesale marketing materials
• Templates and resources you can use immediately

What to Bring

Come prepared to work! Not a must, but you can get more out of this workshop if you have ready:

• A draft list of crops you plan to sell this season
• Your current or previous season’s pricing (if available)
• Any existing availability lists, order sheets, or point-of-purchase materials you’ve used

Join us for free by RSVPing on our Action Network page.

Funding for this workshop comes from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Organic Transition Pilot Program and a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service.