Cabbage Industry Challenges & Opportunities

Transcription

1 Cabbage Industry Challenges & Opportunities The New York Farm Viability Institute is a farmer-led nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening agriculture in New York State by helping individual agricultural producers succeed. While each farming enterprise faces its own challenges, some issues are common to many producers in a given production sector or industry segment. NYFVI seeks to identify priority issues of industry-wide scope that can be addressed either with resources at the Institute s disposal, or through the efforts of collaborating organizations. In December 2006 NYFVI along with Cornell Cooperative Extension, the New York Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cabbage Research and Development Program Advisory Board organized an effort to identify barriers to success and profitability for the cabbage industry in New York State. The group identified intermediate-term threats and opportunities to the industry, along with potential production and business management system changes that could make a difference to enterprise success. Focus group participants and other industry leaders subsequently rated these threats, opportunities, and promising changes in ways of doing business as low, medium or high priority. This yielded a composite ranking of all the issues on a scale of 100 (lowest possible score) to 300 (highest possible score). A score of 300 indicates that each person that rated the item gave it a high priority ranking. The lowest possible score is 100, meaning that every individual gave that item a low rating. The number preceding each item below is the composite ranking score. Following is the full list of issues identified by focus groups in ranked order. During the scoring process respondents were able to add items. The added items appear at the bottom of each section without a score since they were added by an individual and not rated by the group. In developing project proposals for NYFVI consideration, researchers, consultants, and educators are encouraged to consult this list of issues. Priority will be given to projects that clearly address the highest priority issues. Ranking Score Five-year threats to the success of the New York Cabbage Industry: 289 Immigration issues relative to obtaining and keeping employees. 244 Immigration issues relative to equal enforcement between districts and a level competitive playing field across the U.S.

2 241 High New York State taxes. 235 Energy costs for electricity and fuel. 233 Food safety and quality regulations and enforcement are not the same for imported vs. domestic cabbage. 224 Unrealistic and unscientific based expectations on the part of buyers for how the land and crop are managed - e.g. manure application with 3, 5 or 7 years, irrigation water quality, animal access to the fields. 224 Retailers - want high quality/low price; will push prices down. 222 Regulatory limits for workers comp and social security, and their impact on small farms. 222 Increasing crop pests - e.g. thrips & aphids. 219 Competition with other states, countries - trade policies, subsidies. 212 Market demand - is there a trend for increased or decreased cabbage consumption? 212 EPA/DEC pesticide regulation. 189 Water quality concerns for irrigation water. 188 Regulations between states creating competitive advantages and disadvantages and inefficient markets - e.g. transportation, production practices, available chemicals. 167 Food safety issues concerning dogs, deer and other animals coming into cabbage fields. 167 Food safety issues concerning crows and seagulls, especially eating in landfills then coming to cabbage fields. 165 Costs and availability of highly specialized cabbage equipment - e.g. plug setters. 165 Availability of land to rent. 165 Knowledge on the part of retail marketers of how to handle cabbage. Finding & maintaining next generation of farmers Five-year opportunities for advancement of the New York Cabbage Industry: 278 Tying cabbage to the promotion of healthy eating habits.

3 276 Health attributes of cabbage as food. 265 Development of new value added cabbage products. 265 Potential for increased cabbage consumption. 256 Promote the quality, safety, etc. of NY cabbage. 224 Value added products in food service. 222 Farm certification for USDA Good Agricultural Practices. 218 Getting coleslaw into restaurant chains - in larger portion sizes. 217 Getting cabbage into NY school lunch programs. 212 Perishable nature and bulk issues with cabbage and proximity to consumers. 211 Improved marketing and packaging: - Demand for smaller cabbage heads - Pack multiple heads per tray of different colors, types - Ethnic fast food restaurants that utilize more cabbage 206 Increasing consumer trend for buying local. 194 Development of a gourmet sauerkraut market. 183 Improvements in processing cabbage to sauerkraut. 150 Organic cabbage. Potential production system changes that could improve productivity and profitability: 276 Thrip virus control via breeding or chemicals. 271 Improved weed control. 259 Anything that reduces inputs - fertilizer, labor, pesticides, water, etc. - Improved or new IPM or other technologies. - A statewide website for pest and weather forecasting, improved for cabbage. - Reduced tillage systems that may affect pest management strategies. 247 Practices for maintaining soil health. 239 Improvements to cabbage varieties.

4 229 Mechanical harvest for fresh market - changes and improvements to cabbage varieties. 229 Work to determine which crops are the best for rotations - high cash value, biomass/energy crops, bio-products, value-added products. 229 Improvements to mechanical transplant equipment. 224 Better varieties - Napa cabbage; storage cabbage. 218 Improved storage post harvest handling techniques. 218 Reliable e-coli test for irrigation water to insure crop protection and food safety. 211 Improved field drainage. 206 Irrigations systems that will protect against biological contamination of the crop. 206 Mechanical harvest for fresh market - equipment development. 200 Longer crop rotations (for > 3 years) for soil quality and disease management. 188 Cabbage trimming machine. 187 Options to trade capital investment for labor. 141 High tunnels could extend the season - possibly 2 crops of a shorter season cabbage. This could also fit in with a market for smaller head size. Potential business system changes that could improve productivity and profitability: 283 Focus on return per acre vs. yield per acre. 265 Good Agricultural Practices certification - develop a 3rd party audit system that is science based and that both buyers and producers can live with. 256 Controlling the cost of production. 253 Product promotional efforts. 247 Communication and cooperation between producers in marketing crops. 235 Working with the final buyer of the product vs. through a broker to develop a product delivery schedule. 222 A farm business summary to allow benchmarking and comparison.

5 220 Understanding the opportunity cost of production. 194 Supply chain management. 171 Form a cooperative - marketing, trucking, price negotiation, product branding - that will allow farmers to focus on production.