MarketReady Buyer Tours
What is a Buyer Tour?
The MarketReady Buyer Tours were created to help connect local food producers with local food buyers. Attendees can ask questions and make connections with potential buyers in the grocery/retail, restaurant, farm-to-school, and other similar marketplaces. The goal of this event is for growers and producers to learn about new market opportunities and how buyers work with local food producers to bring local food products into their markets.
The Buyer Tours began in 2022 and were so well-received that we had three Buyer Tours in 2023! In 2024, we led one Buyer Tour in Lexington. We were unable to host Buyer Tours in 2025, but we have plans in the works for a set of Buyer Tours in 2026. Stay tuned on our Events page for details.
You can register for the upcoming Buyer Tours on our Events page. View some of the highlights from our previous tours below!
The MarketReady Buyer Tour makes space for small producers to connect with and tour local retailers, ask questions, and learn about vendor opportunities look like. Creating access for small farmers to examine what it might look like to be vendors for a local grocer, restaurant or cafe, and reserving time for us to connect and ask questions is invaluable. Through the Buyer Tour I've learned about which retailers/restaurants might be a good fit for us to reach out to sell our products and which businesses would not be a good fit for us to pursue. Additionally, through asking questions we had the opportunity to learn what products are in demand by particular organizations, which gives us some additional market research information before beginning any production. I truly appreciate the work the MarketReady program does to create these learning opportunities and spaces for connection
