(Montreal) Despite inflation, the cost of a subscription to a basket of organic vegetables prepared by a family farmer should not increase too much.
“The price increase is moderate, according to what we see. It’s even less than the increase in the cost of living. What our members want is stability and predictability, says Léon Bibeau-Mercier, president of the Cooperative for Ecological Local Agriculture and owner of the Bibeau farm. So the earlier people subscribe, the better it is to plan for the season. »
Every year, some 150 market gardeners make more than half a million baskets of organic vegetables for 30,000 families in Quebec and New Brunswick.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Agricultural producers, and especially those working on smaller lands, are not immune to inflation, recognizes Mr. Bibeau-Mercier, but their resilience is reinforced by the support of the community they serve. “This is what allows agriculture to be more resilient in terms of costs because it becomes less dependent on the price of certain inputs,” explains the Sherbrooke producer.
“For prices, we have no choice but to adapt to the market and the reality we encounter, including inflation,” explains Florient Rossignol, founding member of the Coop Au bout du rang, in Saint- Felix-de-Valois in Lanaudière.
It’s always a bit difficult to determine how far we can increase our prices, because we obviously want to make our customers pay as little as possible, but we still have to be able to pay ourselves with what we do.
Florient Rossignol, founding member of the Coop Au bout du rang
On average, the equivalent of some 250 baskets are offered by the young company each week.
Partners in business and on the ground
The continuous increase in the number of subscribers to the vegetable baskets also makes it possible to spread the production costs over a larger number of customers, who are considered partners. This business relationship, which is called community-supported agriculture, therefore allows producers to share the risks without passing all of the cost increases on to their customers.
This is a practice set up at the Jardins de la Terre, in Saint-Paul-d’Abbotsford, in Montérégie, which sells around 200 baskets of vegetables each week as part of its socio-professional integration program.
“It’s a question of sharing responsibilities,” says the general manager, Marie-Salima El Kasmi. Inflation is an element of risk, so we share the impacts with the clientele, but without necessarily following market movements. »
We index our basket costs, and we will also assume part of the fact that production costs are higher.
Marie-Salima El Kasmi, CEO of the Gardens of the Earth
In doing so, the non-profit organization is content to increase the price of its baskets only once a year, before its customers subscribe to the service for the coming summer. “It’s a commitment for the whole season; the price of the basket will not change, whereas at the grocery store, we can see the price of products increase several times during the same year. »
Beyond obtaining fresh and local market garden products, a large proportion of subscribers to the services of a family farmer do so to encourage the local economy. “In fact, people buy the baskets for what they contain, but also to support the production of vegetables, it’s a service that we tend to forget. It’s a commodity product, but it has its share of challenges, when you compare it with what we import or what is mass-produced and sells at a more competitive price,” says Mr. Bibeau-Mercier. .
Few strategies are used by producers to counter the effects of inflation. Reducing the basket of vegetables or the variety of products it contains is out of the question.
“The objective of family farmers is to feed a household as completely as possible with seasonal vegetables. Reducing the quantity or variety of vegetables does not make sense from this perspective,” recalls Mr. Bibeau-Mercier.
Towards new modes of ownership
Despite everything, making a small agricultural production profitable remains difficult. Many over the years have given up because of the low margin that emerges from countless hours of effort.
Other producers have reviewed their business structure. “In the very short term, we have seen farmers turn to a solidarity cooperative or create agro-ecological social utility trusts in order to distribute the workload and risk differently, and to integrate a greater number of people into the company’s activities,” says Mr. Bibeau-Mercier.
This is what led to the founding of the Coop au Bout du rang, when the owner of the farm and her three employees became members of a cooperative responsible for managing production. “In co-op, we have the human resources base, which is made up of members,” says Rossignol. If I was on my own, I would have to go get employees to do what the other members do. »
And in a context of labor shortages, where other employers in other sectors are able to offer more attractive wages, recruiting agricultural workers is not an easy task. “This is where we realize that it is difficult, because our salaries are not very competitive, and few people are ready to break their backs for so little”, adds the cooperator.
Mr. Bibeau-Mercier speaks of a “triple effort to be made”, namely, on the one hand, a reorganization of work by agricultural producers, on the other hand, solid and growing support from the community, and finally , an adjustment of government funds dedicated to supporting local agriculture.
“For us, being a farmer is more than just growing vegetables. At the center of our ambitions, there is a bigger goal that drives us; that of contributing to our community and to a social project serving the collective interest,” he explains.
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.