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Nothing can be more frustrating for producers than to be unable to sell all their product at the farmers market, CSA site, or other marketing event. Throwing perishable product away or giving it to the animals is not profitable. Check out the following ATTRA resources on how to add value to your raw farm products so you can reduce your marketing risk by taking out much of the perishability of the products. Here you can see valuable videos, tutorials, publications, and detailed product cost calculators that will help you design and price your value-added products.

Arrow Icon Product Cost Calculators
Arrow Icon Tutorials
Arrow Icon Materials from the Beyond Fresh Project
Arrow Icon Other Links

Tutorials

Scaling Up for Regional Markets
This tutorial provides lessons and information for farmers who have success in smaller and more direct marketing channels and who are interested in expanding their operations to meet a growing demand for local food. There is a specific lesson on Value-added Products.

Materials from the Beyond Fresh Project

Beyond Fresh Cover Art
In 2018, a team led by the National Center for Appropriate Technology completed a three-year research and education project called Beyond Fresh: Expanding Markets for Sustainable Value-added Food Products in Texas. Materials from the project are available below. We hope you find them useful.

Beyond Fresh: a Food-Processing Guide for Texas Farmers

Taking a “Farmer First Approach,” this workbook helps you decide what products to create, how to make and sell them, and at what scale. It includes chapters on developing products, dealing with regulations and food safety laws, designing labels and packaging, and seeking funding for your new food enterprise.
Buy a hard copy or download the PDF here.

Value-Added Product Cost Calculators

See links below in the Publications section.

Crops Available to Process Calculator (Excel)

This calculator allows you to estimate the pounds of vegetables and herbs (imperfect and unsold #1s) that you have available for processing, and track their availability in each month of the year.

Beyond Fresh: Food Processing Market Opportunities (PDF)

This April 2016 market research report by Dr. Rodney B. Holcomb and Dr. Timothy Bowser (Food Mech, LLC) includes chapters on Organic Foods; Millennial Shoppers; Fermented and Pickled/Acidified Foods, and Salsa; Vegetables: Canned, Dried, and Otherwise Processed; Fruits: Dried, Jams/Jellies; and Prepared Meals and Sides.

Final Beyond Fresh Project Report

This April 2016 market research report by Dr. Rodney B. Holcomb and Dr. Timothy Bowser (Food Mech, LLC) includes chapters on Organic Foods; Millennial Shoppers; Fermented and Pickled/Acidified Foods, and Salsa; Vegetables: Canned, Dried, and Otherwise Processed; Fruits: Dried, Jams/Jellies; and Prepared Meals and Sides.

Resource Directory

This directory, housed on the Texas Center for Local Food website, includes many resources for value-added food product development in Texas, including potential buyers, commercial kitchens, food manufacturing facilities, food brokers, food distributors, and food analysis labs.

Project poster
Materials shown above, from the Beyond Fresh Project, are based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2014-38640-22155 through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LS14-264. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider.