Are you a gardener, or do you have a small farm? You can make money by selling some of your products in the popular South African farmers’ market. But it’s not as easy as bringing your farm products to the market. There are plenty of other farmers like you with even more produce and variety than yours, so that might not help you stand out. See some of our ideas on how you can make money in a South African food market by selling your farm products.
Sell Attractive Fruits – Attractive Colors
It’s not enough to pack all the fruits in your garden to sell, you have got to make it attractive. Try mixing colors up to attract customers—red strawberries, orange (well) oranges, green apples, yellow bananas, and so on. You can also pick a niche to make things easier for you. If fruits are not your thing, veggies too are exciting. Carrots, lettuce, garlic, and so on make good products to sell.
Grow and Sell Unique Products
Another idea is to sell things that aren’t so common. Take some time to look around the market for things that most people sell, then spice yours up. You can sell red carrots instead of the common ones or go for cucameloms – those are not common, one bit.
Pack Different Veggies and Add a Recipe Card
Do you have some of your grandmother’s recipes? Now is the time to put it to good use and make some money. Check through the recipes and shop for the ingredients you need to make the meal. Pack it all in a bag, add the recipe card and sell it as a full package. To really make money off of this, calculate how much you have spent on gathering the ingredients and add some change for profit.
Sell Dried Herbs
Step away from fruits and veggies for a while and see how fast you will sell herbs. Dried herbs make great spice for cooking so you can package them in different sizes. Some could be in bottles and others in small take-out plates. Make sure that you label each package using the name of the herb.
Recommend and Sell Herbal Tea
Do you know about medicinal herbs? You can make money recommending and selling medicinal tea to customers in the farmers’ market. Depending on the illness, you can label the tea bags/containers for people to see. You can also add regular sweet tea to the mix and become a full tea shop.
Into Bees, Sell Honey
Honey is a natural gift to man because there is hardly anyone that doesn’t like honey. It is also a great way to make money in a South African farmers’ market. Serve them in jars or bottles of different sizes for variety. Make sure that you have a separate jar for samples.
Make Jams and Jellies to Sell
Just like maple syrup, you can mash up berries and make different flavors of jams. To make yours even special, you can create your special jam or jelly recipe to sell.
Sell Unique Eggs
Similar to selling unique veggies, eggs are also a great idea. But chicken eggs are so common that almost every farmer sells them. Duck eggs, quail, or geese eggs are other great ideas to begin from. If you want to read the birds, it would be cheaper at the end but can be a little expensive at the start -except if you already have ducks as we speak.
Veggie Starters Are a Great Idea
Some people are out there looking for veggie starters, and you can be the one selling those. You can start with one type of vegetables then move on to selling varieties. That way, you can provide an alternative for buying seedlings from a nursery.
Add Craft Items
With food items, add other things like selling craft items. If you are a creative person, you can monetize your creativity by making craft pieces. Bring them to the market, display them, and write some background story behind every piece to attract customers.
Make DIY Soaps and Sell
Another DIY product to sell alongside farm produce in a South African farmers’ market is soaps, lotions, and other bath items. However, make sure that the farm products you are selling cannot be contaminated with soap and lotions. An easy solution is to sell dried ingredients like herbs than fresh foods.
Conclusion
South African farmers’ markets are more than a place to buy things. You can also make money from the market by selling any of these items. Drowning on your specialty, you can sell fruits, veggies, or herbs. You can also go into dairy products like eggs and make them unique. Craft items can also be added to increase your profit.
