Storage
Important notes about Storage
Producers should be aware that storage space usually comes at a premium. Restaurant kitchens are often crowded, and the space in a restaurant’s walk-in cooler may be limited. School kitchens are the same way -- they do not have massive amounts of storage space either. Likewise, grocery and retail stores may only have a specific space or area for your product. However, these realities should not keep a producer from starting the discussion about expanding their offerings to a new or existing restaurant, grocery/retail, or school buyer. Producers with less perishable products may have more flexibility with storage.
Limited storage space at a restaurant or other buyer's facility can leave the producer looking for a place to store their product. On-farm cold storage or refrigerated storage is often a nice solution to this problem. On-farm cold storage can come with a larger investment price if a storage unit is not already in place, but it serves and benefits as a place the producer can store product in-between deliveries.
On-farm cold storage also serves as a way to keep your product cold [if it requires it] and keep the value of your product intact. There are several low-cost ways to achieve cold storage. Below are links to articles about low-cost options for cold storage.
Keeping your perishable products in the correct temperatures is also a part of Quality Assurance, and an very important part of keeping your buyer happy. Check out our Quality Assurance page for more information.
For information related to funding post-harvest storage, check out the website below:
MarketReady's Best Practices for success
- Be aware of how much product your buyers can handle. You don't want to overload your buyer's space or capacity.
- Be willing to help buyers come up with off site storage, such as space in on-farm cold storage.
- If using on-farm storage, be sure to have storage guidelines in place to keep product at its peak level of freshness.
Best Practices from our friends at NC Growing Together
Check out these cold storage best practices from NC Growing Together.