The Rural Voice, 1995-04, Page 31essential. After weeks of
hold-up, however, they
admitted that he wasn't
making any unproven
claims in having the seal
on his eggs so they
allowed him to go ahead.
The Ontario market-
ing board setup actually
facilitated the move into
direct marketing. Under
regulations, the eggs
must go to a grading
station and it's up to the
station to find a market
for the eggs. The farmer
gets paid by the grading
station. Although the
grading station was
hesitant at first, Gerald
was able to persuade the
small, family-owned
operation that he would
be doing the marketing
so there was nothing to
lose. Now the company
Gerald Poechman's poultry barn, 20 years out of date,
became an asset when they switched to organic egg
production.
is happy, foreseeing getting extra
business as the Poechmans expand
their operation.
The grading station system also
provides an audit trail from the
consumer right back to the
farm. That trail, like the OCIA
seal, helps build the line of trust
between the consumer and the
producer. The consumer's need for
trust in the producer, he says, is the
reason farmers' markets are
exploding across the province.
In preparing to go after the
organic market the Poechmans
switched from white egg layers to
brown egg layers. Consumers
somehow see brown eggs as a more
natural product, he says. Brown egg
layers are just as productive so it
made sense to switch.
The one detriment to brown eggs
became an important marketing
strength too. Feed costs for brown
egg layers are a little higher than for
white egg layers so he had to ask a
premium price for the eggs, and that
made his eggs stand out on the
market shelf. "If the price is within a
small percentage of the conventional
product the consumer has no reason
to ask what difference there is
between the two." If, however, there
is a larger difference, consumers
begin to ask why. The OCIA seal
helped explain the reason, as did in-
store promotion materials. But the
best move the family made was on
the advice of their consultant who
told them to give a dozen free eggs to
every member of the staff of the
stores where their eggs were sold.
The staffers ate the eggs and liked
them, and when customers asked
why the eggs were more expensive,
they'd say the Poechman eggs were
the best they'd ever tasted.
And customers are willing to pay
for the perceived extra value. In
Montreal, where extra transportation
and a distributor's cut mean the eggs
arrive at the store door at $2.99 a
dozen, customers are happily
snapping up the eggs at $3.45 a
dozen.
Although he wasn't getting a big
piece of that inflated price (he gets a
premium of about 25-30 cents a
dozen, not including the undergrade
eggs), Gerald admits his conscience
bothered him for a long time over the
idea of customers paying that much
for his eggs. It's the idea of the
farmers being obligated to provide
cheap food that was so ingrained in
him, he says. Then he began to look
at historical prices and found out that
if the price of eggs in 1951 was
converted into 1995 prices,
consumers would be paying 54.70 a
dozen instead of the $1.55 they're
now paying for mainstream eggs.
Others in society aren't stuck
with as small an increase in
income as farmers have had in
food prices, he says.
Research shows that demand
for organic food is spread across
the entire income spectrum from
the poorest of the poor to the rich,
he says. But since the average
consumer buys a dozen eggs a
week, even at $3.45 a dozen, eggs
are still a good value for the
nutrition involved, he argues.
"That has been an awakening to
me," he says.
Also, on a visit to Florida, he
saw "vegetarian" eggs,
individually stamped, selling at
$1.89 U.S. a dozen right beside
regular eggs at 79 cents.
People convince themselves of
the quality of the product after
they have made the purchase,
Gerald says. People who buy
Cadillacs convince themselves
that it was really a wise purchase
compared to buying a second-hand
car. Shoppers in Montreal have
convinced themselves that they're
getting value for their S3.45 eggs.
Last fall the Poechmans also
discovered how much loyalty
there was to their brand of
eggs. When they changed
flocks they ended up with a shortage
of large eggs to meet the demand in
the stores. They had medium and
small eggs but none of their own
cartons to put them in. The stores
were crying for eggs so they used
cartons from their egg grading station
and put the OCIA logo on it and had
a flyer inserted in each carton saying
these were still their eggs even if the
carton was different. The eggs didn't
sell and customers kept asking store
employees when they were going to
have Pocchman eggs again.
"It proved to me that anyone else
couldn't take our market away at a
cheaper price," Gerald said.
The family name has been part ul
the Poechmans' strategy. Their name
is prominently on the top of the egg
carton, and on the hack, it reads "Ci
& M Poechman Family Farm".
The family did run into one hitch
with their eggs. Originally there had
been store displays advertising the
fact the eggs had higher Omega
content because the hens had been
fed flax. Government official`
APRIL 1995 27