Covid 19: Integrating Post-Covid Cut Flower Demand into Market Education

Integrating Post-Covid Cut Flower Demand into Market Education Abstract Through this project the Center for Crop Diversification will work with selected partners to evaluate the changing market condition for cut flowers in Kentucky during the post-covid period, integrate this information into a Cut Flower Marketing School, and support a cut flower on-line marketing promotion program to complement the growing focus of on-line engagement by cut flower farms. The first deliverable will focus on evaluating the market and measuring the demand for cut flowers in Kentucky. This market is changing along with many other local sourcing channels. On-line engagement is becoming increasingly critical, especially for high value, customizable, design-intensive, and seasonal products like cut flowers. We will work with cut flower farmers to develop a survey that explores customer willingness to pay for different representative products and services provided by growers. A latent class choice model will be used working with an on-line survey technique that allows us to identify both the size and characteristics of specific kinds of cut flower buyers in Kentucky. Findings from this survey will be integrated into both the cut flower promotion programs associated with this project and the Cut Flower Marketing School. A Cut Flower Market Analysis report will be published and distributed through the CCD website. For the second deliverable, we will develop a Cut Flower Marketing School that draws from current on- line and social media marketing innovations launched by the Kentucky Horticulture Council as well as the expertise of Dr. Melanie Stock, Extension Professor from Utah State University that has wrok extensively with cut flower farmers and markets and has a history of collaboration with the CCD. There are in Kentucky several county-based Horticulture Cooperative Extension agents that work specifically with cut flowers that would be important partners in the training design and delivery. Alexis Sheffield (Boyle) and Kristin Hildenbrand (Warren) have been partners with the CCD and the KY Horticulture Council (KHC) on cut flower work. Bethany Pratt (Jefferson) has worked with immigrant farmers exploring specialty crop diversification for urban markets. Kelly Jackson (Christian) works with several growers strong ties to the Fairview Produce Auction and grower community where flowers are increasingly important. Ms. Columbia, Extension Associate with the CCD, would assist in the development of training materials and evaluations. Training in marketing and business development will include curriculum design in the first year with pilot in-person and virtual training early in year two. This will lead toward a full training available to all interested producers, selected CES Hort and ANR agents, and other individuals supporting the local cut flower market (potentially selected CSA and on-farm retail market producers). Partners with the KHC will assist in the training design and delivery. They are also well-positioned to recruit producers initially and support the marketing and business development longer term. Pre/Post-training evaluations for the Cut Flower School will be provided throughout to monitor learning and implementation outcomes. The third deliverable will involve a coordinated cut flower promotion program that will be integrated with the marketing training. This effort will involve the whole project team, but be led by staff from the KY Horticulture Council. It will include four main components building throughout the project: (1) quarterly Cut Flower Marketing Hints webinars – 16 in total – featuring buyers, farmers, social media experts, Hort agents, and others; (2) Fresh Friday grower promotion; (3) Kentucky Cut Flower Month promotion each July for the four years; and (4) social media data captures on the effectiveness of various promotions on various of the media platforms utilized. This promotion program will build on many of the successful pilot efforts marketing cut flowers already developed by the KHC.