Kim Morgan (klmorgan@vt.edu), Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Applied Economics (540) 231-3132
MarketMaker, a web-based portal that serves as a virtual marketplace for producers, distributors, and sellers, and buyers of agricultural products, seeks to provide farm-to-fork access to participants in the food supply chain.
Currently, alternative online lists and portals are offered that contribute to connecting people and businesses involved in the production, distribution, storage and sales of local food, and resources produced by Virginia farms and agribusinesses. This purpose of this article is to highlight the unique characteristics of MarketMaker that offer added value to registered businesses and consumers who seek to use the portal as a marketing strategy to improve overall profitability of their operation.
In 2015, our Virginia Market Maker team traveled to nine venues and interacted with over 500 agribusiness owners and operators, raising awareness across the state about this invaluable, FREE, resource. We are excited to announce that the Virginia Market Maker kiosk and team are scheduled to be at the following 2016 events, and we look forward to seeing you there!
– February 1, 2016: Love at 1st Bite, Daleville, VA
– February 12, 2016: Midatlantic Women in Agriculture Conference, Dover, DE*
– February 18, 2016: Managing Risk for Direct Market Growers*
– February 27, 2016: Farm Bureau Young Farmers Expo, Chatham, VA*
– March 18, 2016: Heart of Virginia Buy Fresh Buy Local, Keysville, VA*
– March 23, 2016: Lunch to Learn, Lynchburg, VA
– April 4, 2016: Virginia Agritourism Conference, Halifax, VA*
Those noted with an asterisk (*) indicate that there will be a talk featuring the Virginia Market Maker portal.
If you would like the Virginia Market Maker team and kiosk to join you at your next event in 2016, please contact Dr. Kim Morgan and we look forward to meeting you!
Visit the Virginia Market Maker page on the Virginia Cooperative Extension site for new updates and information on educational programs offered. If you would like to host the Virginia Market Maker kiosk team at your event, please contact Dr. Kim Morgan for additional information. Share this post using the links following this article, and, stay connected by subscribing to this blog to receive updates on Virginia Market Maker programming, follow Dr. Morgan on Twitter and, like the Agricultural and Applied Economics Department on Facebook!