(09-24-2021, 06:19 PM)Jags Wrote:

(09-24-2021, 07:01 AM)EricC85 Wrote: How do you find buyers for your crops? I’m guessing there’s some kind of co-op that buys bulk produce? I’ve always wondered how farmers sell there crops. Very cool info senior

I too am curious.  Not only that, but do the buyers “expect” a certain poundage or quantity.  And if the total isn’t met, are there repercussions?  Or are the buyers the “big boys” and will buy as much as they can from their sources?  Like a good year for raisins, does Sun Maid box more? Or do they buy what they expect to sell based off their projections leaving some farmers with a [BLEEP] ton of raisins and no where to move them?

No worries man. I'll always make time to talk about this stuff; I think it's important for people to know more about how their food is made. And sold maybe too. 

The buyer has no expectation of tonnage per se. The expectation is on the farmer. Will I make or lose money lol. On a very loose level, if you take the industry average for production, the first half is paying for your cost and the second half is you net profit. So personally since I'm pretty small, my expectation might be to double the average. That's basically how I compete, because I'm the labor and I'm free lol. 

There is an expectation on quality. Of course, do you have pest? Worms in you nuts, vinegar flies hatching in your grapes? Rotten bunches? Basically disease and pests. 

Then you have another quality component as well. In almonds nut size is important, you got big nuts or baby nuts? Big nuts get paid more. Cherries are the same. Table grapes they like big berries too. 

Raisins I know best so I'll go through that process. Once they dry up and you bin them, you might let them cure for a week and send them in. The first thing that happens is they arrive at the USDA station. They dump your bins over a conveyor system and maybe 2-3 USDA guys watch them go over the conveyors. They look for things like glass, stickers, feathers, dog [BLEEP], etc. If you have any of that you're in trouble. Fail. 

Then I think they still do a "jar test" by hand. They scoop a random "jar" of raisins from x amount of your bins and just eyeball them for defects like dry rot or whatever. 

Then you get sent off to the airstream sorter. This is basically a vacuum machine, it calculates how much percentage of your crop it's able to vacuum up. Raisins that are able to be vacuumed up didn't have enough weight, meaning the berry didn't accumalete enough sugar when it was a grape. This is ultimately expressed as your B&B. Percentage of raisins that are graded a B grade and better. 

75-100 full bonus
50-75 partial bonus
35-50 weight dockage (you pay a penalty)
0-35 the USDA congratulates you on your fine production of Chinese bird seed. 

Then you'll have a moisture test done and they probably test for mold at the same time. "Meeting" raisins needs to be below 16% moisture by weight. And they pay a sliding bonus down to 10%. Under 10% will pass but then your just giving up weight, and you get paid by weight. 

16-22% stable raisins, but you'll pay a fee to have them dried down. 
22%+ not able to stabilize in bins, you'll have to schedule an emergency drying with the packer. This will cost a lot. 

Then your mold and microtoxin rating. 5% is the passing threshold. Over that and you pay to have your fuit cleaned. The higher the percent the more you pay in effect. Also a killer cost wise, but we have insurance available for this. This is basically the result of rain on the trays. 

If you pass everything they email you a report. If something fails you get a phone call. So when you send those trucks in, for a week or two you absolutely dread every time your phone rings.

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