Four Tips for Marketing Garlic
Marketing Garlic
Garlic is wonderfully useful in the kitchen, garden, and medicine cabinet. It also has potential as a cash crop. Because we get a number of inquiries from growers interested in selling their crop, we wanted to share some thoughts on using garlic as a cash crop.
Is Garlic a Good Cash Crop?
There are several good reasons to raise garlic as a cash crop. One reason is the yield per acre. A lot of garlic can be grown in a relatively small space, making it an attractive option for small farms. Another reason is a wide demand. Used in almost every ethnic cuisine, garlic is one of the the most-consumed crops in the world.The humble garlic stays in pretty steady demand year-round, and more garlic is currently imported into the USA than exported.
There is at least one good reason NOT to use garlic as your cash crop. It is very difficult to grow and harvest a significant amount of garlic with hand methods but the cost of mechanizing is high. Garlic takes a lot of handling, and without highly specialized (and expensive) equipment it is difficult for a small farm to grow enough garlic to make a profit that offsets the labor. Garlic is handled out in the field, again back at the cleaning station, again at the curing station, again when it is taken down from curing and put into storage, and again when it is distributed out to the consumer. Without counting the planting process, each bulb must be handled a minimum of five times. By the time that bulb has passed through your hands five times, the value for your time may be pretty low. Growing garlic large-scale with mechanized methods is the best return for your time, but can require an investment of $100,000 or more in seed and equipment.
On the plus side, you can grow a decent amount of garlic with hand methods, and it can make a great side hustle at a Farmer's Market, CSA, or local restaurant. Whether you are interested in just finding a use for your surplus garlic, or whether you are looking at it as a main income supply, here are four tips I have found important for marketing garlic:
Four Tips for Marketing Garlic
1. Decide your target market. Garlic can be marketed three ways: Seed, Culinary, or Processing.
Seed garlic gets the best price per pound for the grower, but requires the highest standard of growing methods. Bulbs sold as seed must be seed grade--meaning over a certain diameter, disease free, and with proven performance--so generally only a portion of your crop will be viable for selling as seed. Growing garlic for seed is the most demanding, but also (potentially) the most financially rewarding.
Culinary garlic does not usually sell for as high as seed garlic, but specialty garlic varieties and very large bulbs can still bring a good price with the right market. Culinary garlic can be sold directly to the consumer or as wholesale.
Processing garlic gets the lowest price, but is a good option for bulk sales or inferior bulbs.
2. Have a temperature-controlled curing environment. If you do not invest in any other special equipment for garlic, invest in a temperature-controlled curing environment. If you plan to sell your garlic, you need reliable results from curing. Unless you live somewhere with cool, dry summers, it is worth the investment to have an enclosed curing shed or other building where you can control the temperature and humidity for clean, mold-free bulbs with long shelf life.
3. Hardneck garlics are a good choice for selling directly to consumers (such as a Farmer's Market) or to restaurants. Hardnecks are not widely available in grocery stores in the US, and are impressive to buyers for their beautiful colors, large size, and easy-to-peel cloves.
4. Don't forget value-added items! Garlic can be dried for garlic powder and homemade seasoning blends, or used in salsas, dressings, and other items that can also be marketed from your farm.
Growing garlic is reward in itself. If it can be used to benefit your farm and family in other ways, then that is a bonus. If you have more tips for marketing garlic or questions that are not answered here, we would love to hear from you!
For more tips on growing and marketing garlic, check out our Homesteader’s Guide for Growing Garlic!
