Selling Organic - Funded by Ackerman Pick 'n Pay
Selling Organic for Organic Packshed suppliers
The South African Institute of Entrepreneurship ( SAIE) and Abalimi Bezekhaya (ABALIMI) have combined their expertise and experience in entrepreneurial and agricultural training respectively and have formed a training partnership. The partnership aims to develop a series of innovative training methodologies that are specifically designed to provide entrepreneurial training and selected technical training for emerging farmers, within a proven development continuum.
This programme designs specialised training that will enable emerging growers to become certified organic producers able to supply and manage a pack-shed operation. The intention is to develop, design and deliver a training course that is accessible, effective and transferable. The training materials will be packaged as reproducible resource for future growers and organisations that seek organic certification. Selected participants will be able to use the design materials to extend the training to future growers.
A producer who wishes to become a certified organic producer is obliged to comply with a number of requirements that includes:
An understanding of and compliance with an organic supply chain that affects all aspects of the production cycle. This includes the use of soil additives, accessing seed and/ or seedling and crop maintenance procedures throughout the growth cycle
The maintenance of records as specified by the certification body including procurement, production and maintenance procedures.
Registration procedures The majority of emerging producers struggle with the language, policy and procedures of organic certification. The research aims to decode the certification requirements and reproduce them in an accessible format.
The training materials are developed in the form of an interactive game. Teams are challenged over a range of specific issues, to come up with the standards that buyers require. Teams then select “inspectors” to go and check on the other team’s progress using a checklist of requirements. The “inspectors” rate each teams’s performance and heated debate and discussion ensues. Teams try to establish where they have fallen short as well as exactly “what and why” the requirements are. They then have a chance to remediate their first attempts in the light of the discussion and new information.
An accessible methodology has been designed and developed to assist producer groups to comply with the certification procedures and standards. These will take the form of workbooks, work-cards and training manuals.
The majority of producer groups see marketing as something that needs to be addressed when the crops are ready . The training aims to put marketing at the beginning of the planting and planning cycle. Producer groups will receive training to plan effectively in order to ensure that production flows are regularised. An ordering and planning system is being designed to assist the producer groups to ‘produce to order’.
