More people buying straight from farmer
Smaller operations popular as consumers avoid grocery stores, packing plant meats
Christina Stender has been fielding an unprecedented number of inquiries and orders for her specialty pork and bacon since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
But most surprising to the Strathmore-area farmer is the number of people who have asked her if they can purchase live pigs.
“The increase in people wanting to buy live pigs . . . I was like, ‘where is this coming from?’ But they want them as piglets because they want to grow their own food,” said Stender, whose business is called Eh Farms. “Basically, meat is the new toilet paper.”
The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically changed the way Albertans consume and shop for food. As the number of restaurant meals plummets and home cooking becomes the norm, run-of-the-mill items such as yeast and flour have become greatly sought-after and shortages are common. More people are choosing online grocery ordering and delivery, and cutting down on trips to the bricks-andmortar stores.
In addition, outbreaks of the virus among employees at Alberta’s two major meat-packing plants have led to a significant reduction in beef processing capacity. Earlier this week, Mcdonald’s Canada — which has long advertised that it only serves “100 per cent Canadian” beef — announced it would temporarily begin sourcing meat from outside the country due to supply chain difficulties in Canada.
Together, all of these factors are fuelling anxiety among consumers and creating new opportunities for some of Alberta’s small farmers — particularly those who, like Stender, had been bypassing the major packers and grocery chains long before COVID-19.
“We’re just a little farm,” says Stender, who has relied on directfrom-farmgate sales since starting her Red Mangalitsa (a specialty breed known for its juicy, marbled meat) pig farm three years ago.
“A lot of people don’t even know we’re here. But now I’m suddenly getting all these phone calls from Calgarians — foodies who can’t go to the restaurants but are calling saying ‘we love this kind of stuff.’ “
In recent years, consumers have become increasingly interested in supporting “local” and knowing where their food is coming from, said Laurel Winter, farm manager at Winter’s Turkeys southeast of Calgary. Rather than sparking a new trend, the pandemic appears to have simply accelerated a trend that was already happening, she said.
“People are concerned about their meat supply. And if you can come and pick up a box of meat, then you don’t have to go to the grocery store,” Winter said. “We don’t have the hotel and restaurant business we have had in years past, but we have stronger frozen sales (because of COVID-19).”
It’s not all rosy for small farmers right now. In normal times, many rely heavily on sales from farmers’ markets, most of which are either now closed or operating with significant restrictions. And while there may be a whole cohort of potential new customers out there, not all producers have the online presence or social media savvy to get noticed.
For some, that’s where food delivery boxes come in. Both Eh Farms and Winter’s Turkeys are participating in a pilot project partnership between Edmonton-based grocery delivery service The Organic Box and the organizers of Open Farm Days, an annual agricultural open house event in Alberta. The pilot project aims to provide a distribution vehicle for small, local farmers during the pandemic and help their products find new markets.
“You never know with a pilot project how it’s going to go, but we’ve had incredible success,” spokeswoman Nicola Doherty said of the subscription box service, which offers local meat and other products such as jams, syrup, honey and salsa from farms around the province. “One of the boxes sold out within 36 hours.”
Another Alberta-based subscription box service, Bessie Box — which delivers hormone-free beef and chicken right to consumers’ doorsteps and has been up and running less than a year — is also doing well during COVID-19. The company saw its sales increase ten-fold when the pandemic hit, said co-founder Shanika Abeysinghe.
“The last two months have been absolutely insane,” Abeysinghe said. “Especially with ground beef — I think there’s a lot of freezer stocking happening.”
To get its meat butchered and processed, Bessie Box works with small, provincially licensed abattoirs as opposed to giants Cargill or JBS — two companies whose facilities at High River and Brooks have been epicentres for COVID-19 outbreaks.
While Abeysinghe said her company aims to reassure Albertans — not scare them — about the security of the province’s food chain, she added there’s no denying that what’s happening in the news is contributing to the spike in sales for Bessie Box.
“There is a desire on the part of consumers to understand where that product’s coming from, understand the whole supply chain and understand where everything’s being processed,” she said. “Because we’re small, we can go right to our farmers and processors and say, ‘what do your health and safety measures look like?’ “
While it’s clear that the pandemic has dramatically altered consumer buying preferences, what’s not yet clear is how much of the shifts that have been observed so far will be permanent. Abeysinghe acknowledged she doesn’t know, though her company is working as hard as it can to convert its new customers into long-term clients.
“I do think a lot of this demand right now comes down to people being scared and not wanting to leave their homes,” Abeysinghe said. “For a company like us, we just hope the buying patterns stay the same after people adjust to the new normal that comes out of this.”