Selling Skagit’s Ag Products

Strong Marketing Strategies May Be Key to Continued Success in a Global Economy

by Michael Barrett

Skagit’s name’s for sale. It’s called “brand identity,” and some people would like to see it emblazoned on colorful labels marking its fresh, healthful farm produce and other ag products.

The concept isn’t there yet, but those who work to promote the county’s strong agricultural base, worth a gross $200 million a year, are willing to go the extra mile, writing a grant that would, should it be approved, provide a marketing consultant to help come up with a plan for the future.

Dyvon Havens, horticulturist with the Washington State University (WSU) Cooperative Extension office for Skagit County, hopes the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant proposal could be approved this month.

“One thing we’ve look at for about 10 years, but not seriously until now, has been developing a brand identity, where we really promote our products,” she says. “What you’re buying when you buy our products is extra safety, nutrition and freshness.”

Sonoma County in California has established its “brand identity” on products it sells all over the world. Another example is Copper River salmon, which causes such a stir in grocery stores once a year. Closer to home, Havens points out, you have King County’s Puget Sound Fresh and the commercial Made in Washington business, which is currently owned by Anacortes-based SeaBear. It’s kind of like an expanded Knott’s Berry Farm, selling a wide range of value-added, locally produced commodities and heavily promoting them as “exceptional” because they are, after all, “Made in Skagit County.”

 

‘Best farmers in the world’

Of course, to get to this point, one has to have a diversified product base, which Skagit Valley has had for more than a century.

“Here, we have some crops that can compete in that global market,” she declares. “Take a look at our vegetable seed crops. We grow a good amount of the world’s supply.”

Alf Christianson’s Seed Co. of Mount Vernon is a major grower, leading the world in cabbage-seed production.

“We grow half the world’s beet and brussels-sprout seed and most of the seed for kale, Chinese cabbage and mustard,” Havens observes. “Spinach is still big, even though it’s lost its edge; it used to be about 75 percent of the world’s total. And blueberries: we don’t grow the lion’s share, but we get better yields than other blueberry states like Wisconsin. And our quality is better.”

While thinking scientifically, statistically and pragmatically about Skagit Valley agriculture, Havens still cannot avoid superlatives.

“Someone said we have the third best soil in the world — I don’t know where they got that information — and we have some of the best farmers in the world, which I totally agree with,” she enthuses.

“Diversification is another topic,” Havens continues.

National Frozen Foods decision to close its Burlington plant last December essentially put 6,000 acres of peas out of production. This acreage is still looking for a crop, says Havens. Some of the crops mentioned by her and others in the local ag industry include kiwis, lingenberries, pears, Jonagold apples, even grapes for wine. It’s a matter of discovery.

“Any crop we pick to grow here is going to have to grow here better than anywhere else,” she states. “I don’t know what those crops are. Kiwi fruit comes to mind. But that won’t be the answer to all our problems.”

Since it costs farmers more to grow crops in this region, it would behoove them to add more value to them — making potato chips out of potatoes, for instance, or turning fruits and berries into jams and jellies. Painting faces on pumpkins is another example.

Consumers — so many of whom live in nearby population centers — want more, Havens believes, and are becoming more particular about the food they consume. “They want safe, healthful, nutritious, fresh vegetables. We can give them that,” she says. Some comes from organic farming, of which Skagit has, through Cascadian Farm and other growers, become a world leader, but “that’s so management intensive” and takes time to set up, she adds.

 

Niche marketing an answer?

“Marketing is going to be more and more important for us in the valley,” Havens remarks. “You have to be out there pushing the product — and probably through brokers.”

A team she’s organized called Future of Ag Leaders is spearheading the movement toward discovering what will work best for Skagit growers in a more diversified sector — a range crops, suited to our climate, that can be grown and marketed successfully to the outside through skillful strategies. It’s not easy to come up with such a list.

“We’re asking: ‘What’s the word? What are people doing? What can we do?’ and people are just shaking their heads. There’s no silver bullet waiting in the wings,” she admits. “(But) a lot of people out there have creative energy. They’re thinking outside the box. It would be nice to be able to help those people who want to get into it.”

Other communities have come up with their own answers — she mentions growing rhubarb in the Puyallup valley and down in Oregon as one example — and sees no reason why the educated, creative and “high thinkers” of our agriculture community can’t do the same here.

Enter the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant proposal. “It’s a one-year grant, very limiting,” she says. “If we get it, we’ll have to get it off the ground right away.”

For more information about Skagit County’s agricultural future, stop by the extension office at 306 S. First St., Mount Vernon, or call 428-4270.

 

Skagit Valley: Agricultural Leader

Skagit Valley has a lot of reasons to feel proud of its agricultural heritage. It’s a world leader in seed production. It has a major dairy industry. It’s strawberries, while not produced today on the GRAND commercial scale they once were, are still among the sweetest on the shelf. And it ranks No. 1 in the state for nursery and greenhouse crops.

According to 1999 statistics of the state Department of Agriculture, Skagit is second only to neighboring Whatcom County in production of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries and by far the biggest potato producer this side of the Cascades. It ranks high also in production of winter wheat, silage corn, hay and, until the closure of National Frozen Foods late last year, peas and carrots.

Most significant, Skagit County produces most of the world’s supply of cabbage, beet, spinach, kale, Chinese cabbage, mustard and brussels-sprout seed.

In 2000, Skagit had 18,900 milk cows, fourth to Whatcom, Yakima and Snohomish counties and accounting for 7.7 percent of the state’s total.

The county also has notable figures in the production of hogs, beef cattle and chickens.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the reporting period ended Dec. 31. 1997, Skagit had 7,084 acres under cultivation for nursery and greenhouse crops, ranking it first in the state and 46th among 2,790 growing counties in the country.

Total value of agricultural products sold in 1997 was $171.69 million (9th in state) and split almost 50-50 between crops and livestock; current but incomplete state figures show this number to be nearer $200 million for the year 2000. That’s an increase of 9.4 percent a year.

In 1997, there were 93,495 acres of farmland in Skagit County, each farm averaging 131 acres. Full-time farms were 376, a decrease of 4 percent from 1992, but the average market value per farm increased 31 percent in the same period to $240,463 in 1997.