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Exploring Wholesale Market Options
By Shermain Hardesty

Ric Tombari, Cook's Company

On June 13, the Small Farm Program partnered with UCCE Small Farm Advisor Margaret Lloyd to conduct a tour of wholesale produce markets for Sacramento region farmers. During the bus ride from Woodland to San Francisco, I described the packaging and grading standards that farmers must comply with when selling wholesale.

Our tour began with a stop at the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, a nonprofit business. It houses 35 produce distributors, wholesalers and an online retailer in busy rows of warehouses. The 18 tour participants gained many insights during our visits with the top management of three businesses in the Market.

Cook's Company was established as a wholesaler to Bay Area restaurants in 1985 by chefs Ric Tombari and Elaine Jones Tombari, the generous funders of this tour. Cooks buys from about 300 farms, and delivers to Bay Area restaurants all seven days of the week. Cooks takes same day orders and has no minimum purchase requirements.

Ric greeted our group warmly and then led us through the warehouse while enthusiastically sharing a wide variety of tips that can enhance the viability of small-scale farms selling to restaurants, including:

wait until your farm has something really good to offer before approaching a potential buyer;
have a good story about your farm when talking to prospective customers
seek out new customers in places where there are lots of restaurants;

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Exploring Wholesale Market OptionsBy Shermain Hardesty

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Exploring Wholesale Market Options
By Shermain Hardesty