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Selling Seed to Retailers: Giving Away the Farm

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deluxestogie

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Giving Away the Farm

I decided to see if there was a local market for packets of tobacco seed. Not wanting to confront the indignant, organic, free range, sustainable tofu crowd at the farmer's market, I chose to test market seed packets at two small locations.

The first is a local gas station / convenience store that also sells larger veggie seed packets and transplants to the local farmers. The second was a wonderfully ramshackle produce mart that similarly sells quantity seed to local farmers.

My plan was to make up two small seed racks of 10 seed packets (~200 tobacco seeds per pack), divided into 3 varieties: Kelly Burley, Hickory Pryor and Bafra. The racks are cheap, small, plastic 5" wide brochure racks from Office Max. I had Office Max print out and laminate a pair of tall rack inserts, that go behind the seed packets and lend more visibility to the display.

SellingSeed_RackInsertText.png
SellingSeed_RackInsertEntire.png

This tall, laminated insert stands behind the packets, and rises above them.

The packets themselves are labeled with variety and a retail price on the front. A label attached to the back includes basic growing instructions.

SellingSeed_PacketFront.png
SellingSeed_PacketBack.png

The front and the back of the 2-1/2" x 4-1/4" paper seed envelope.

The seed itself is measured to far exceed the stated seed count, and is enclosed within a 2" x 3" 2 mil Ziplock.

When I approached each of the location managers/owners, they immediately pointed out that nobody ever requests tobacco seed. Duh.

I handed each of them the small counter-top rack, including 10 seed packets, and said, "These are free. If you sell all of them, you get to keep $27.50. If they sell well, and you want more, here is the pricing sheet."

The sheet has my detailed contact information, followed by:

---------------------------
SEED - to be started indoors March through April
(1) Dozen seed packets (@$1.40 ea) = $16.80 cost
sells @ $2.75 ea. = $33.00 marked retail

TRANSPLANTS - set out after last frost
(18) 3-1/2" potted transplants (@ 1.50 ea) = $27.00 cost
sells @ $3.00 ea. = $54.00 suggested retail


ESTIMATED YIELD per PLANT:
100-200 cigarettes
or
6-12 corona-size cigars
or
2-5 oz. pipe tobacco

---------------------------

Before I departed, I mentioned that if they are interested, I would do the same thing with a tray of 18 transplants in May. The first tray would be free, with a potential $54 clear profit.

My thinking about this is not about making money this year, but raising an interest for wider distribution for 2013.

Notice the plug for FTT. It's main purpose is to minimize the need for handing out further instructions.

Bob
 

BigBonner

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Deluxestogie

That looks good . The package lable is righ on target . Start with small stores then move on up .
 

Tom_in_TN

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Bob, looks really professional and should draw some interest. Will follow along to see if this generates interest in growing-your-own and if there are new members to join in the fun. I'm sure you might even break even one of these days - course selling transplants might bring in the most $$$. Hope they sell like hotcakes.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Bob, That stuff looks nice, but if you REALLY want to impress me have some Yellow Orinoko plants available this spring... I'll buy all you have..:)
 

SmokesAhoy

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What about packaged whole leaf hands? Wonder what kind of business a gas station would see with that! I bet well aged whole leaf like BigB's would sell like hot cakes because it doesn't really need further aging to smoke good. Fresh leaf probably wouldn't get much repeat business.
 

Jitterbugdude

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What about packaged whole leaf hands? Wonder what kind of business a gas station would see with that! I bet well aged whole leaf like BigB's would sell like hot cakes because it doesn't really need further aging to smoke good. Fresh leaf probably wouldn't get much repeat business.

Packaged with a copy of some kind of government statement showing that it was legal... yeah.. lots of hotcakes.
 

deluxestogie

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Selling transplants is pretty sketchy. Consumers expect a potted plant, or at least a small cell tray of plants, the way they buy tomato plants. But the only practical way to raise a lot of tobacco starts is using a float tray system. I believe that a 4-cell tray that costs $12 would cause sticker shock, so I chose to try individual 3-1/2" square pots selling at $3.00 each. These pots cost $0.23 each in quantities lower than 100. A smaller pot would work just fine, and save a few pennies each on the pot and the required soil mix, but the larger pot gives a greater sense of value.

Transplants in pots also require a carrier tray to display them at a retail outlet. These are $1 each, and may or may not be returned. At this point, nobody is going to display more than one tray of them, so fuel costs for delivery have to be factored in.

So my guess is that of the $27 asking price for a tray of 18 potted transplants, the gross profit is below $20.

In addition to the labor of potting the transplants, each individual plant requires a hand-labeled stick to go with it.

I do believe it's possible to make a profit, so long as I'm willing to accept less than minimum wage for my time--a concept familiar to all farmers.

I think that for knowledgeable growers, or those with access to experienced growers (members of this forum), buying bare-root transplants by mail is the preferred way to go. BigBonner should work to make his float-bed transplants easy to order from the upcoming FTT store.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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Is this the same as Yellow orinoco ?

ars-grin.gov PI 73505

That's unlikely. Here's the ARS-GRIN accession detail:
Original Plant Inventory Data for Volume 91 said:
73504 and 73505. NICOTIANA TABACUM
L. Solanaceae. Tobacco.
From Klaten, Java. Seeds presented by the
director, Proefstation voor Vorstenlandsche
Tabak. Received April 2, 1927.
Java varieties.
73504. Santiago. 73505. Timor.

Bob
 

BigBonner

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OK now I have a question .

Could a person go to their local AG agent and have him / her request the seeds from GRIN ?
One government agency to another .
My AG agent is tied in with the University of Kentucky Department Of agriculture ( National Basketball Champs :cool: ).They are his boss so to speak .

Just a thought .
 

SmokesAhoy

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I found a way to request seed from grin. It lets you add only tons at a time (250+) but I never attempted to check out. Likely it would fail though if they don't actually have the packets on hand.
 

deluxestogie

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My understanding of the present situation with the ARS-GRIN Nicotiana seed bank is that there is no longer any staff available to take the time to setup seed packets and process requests. They still receive requests, but can not fulfill them.

Bob
 

Jitterbugdude

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Ditto what Bob said, they don't have the staff so there's just no way you are gonna get any!
It was a good run while it lasted.
Randy B
 

SmokesAhoy

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Yeah that's why I didn't even bother. I'm glad that so many people did receive orders previously though, it's nice knowing much of the seed stock is available still, it just takes a lot more legwork to get now.
 
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