Connecting farmers to market

Locazoa joins farmers and customers in online marketplace

Achance visit by Rachel Kuzmich and Cliff Coulter to Quinta Da Conde farm in Black River last summer set the wheels in motion for a new initiative that connects County farmers to local customers. Cliff has a background in e-commerce, and Rachel has an interest in environmentalism, and they were speaking to Joaquim Conde about some of the challenges he faces in getting customers to know about his farm produce. The idea lay nearly dormant until this spring when Joaquim was considering how to modify his business plan in light of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He decided to launch a community supported agriculture (CSA) program and reached out to Cliff and Rachel, and that is when the couple really started to work on their idea to link farmers with their customers. “Locazoa is an online marketplace for buying and selling farm products in Prince Edward County,” said Rachel. “There are two types of users. Farmers, who are acting as vendors, can create a profile with their contact info and they can list the products they have for sale. If they have a CSA program, they can manage that through the site as well. On the customer side of things, you can go to Locazoa and you can shop across multiple farmers here in the County. So instead of going to farms individually and buying from each farm, you can shop at multiple farms all at once.”

number of customers, but it should soon be open to the public after a payment gateway is installed. Already 25 other farmers have pre-registered to join, and there are over 220 customers signed up. “Once we get the marketplace up and running, we are planning to add a delivery option that we will manage,” said Cliff. “We will have all the location information about where the farmers are and where the customers are so we will be able to coordinate delivery across farmers. If we can collaborate and manage the deliveries on our side then it’s a lot easier for the farmers.” The delivery option is still a few weeks away, as Rachel and Cliff are still looking for a driver.

(L-R): Rachel Kuzmich and Cliff Coulter are the developers of Locazoa, an online marketplace that connects customers to local farmers.

Joaquim is very excited about the Locazoa project. He and his wife, Amor, grow about 50 different types of vegetables on a two-acre market garden, and raise pigs, sheep, ducks, turkeys and chickens. They host a very popular series of harvest dinners, where all the food comes from their farm, and they also run a food education summer camp for kids. “This is a bit of a gamechanger as far as I’m concerned,” said Joaquim. “I’m not going to a farmers’ market anymore; the cost for me is really high. So if I can have a tool like this that puts my products out there, and easily available for people to see what I have, that’s really what matters. It’s all the more important right now where we see how this pandemic will affect the food supply chain. Part of what I do is because I realize our food supply chain is heavily reliant on imports, so right now is a perfect time to shine a light on the problem and promote our local production. We need ways to place our local produce at the disposal of our local community. We have our farm stands here and there, but we don’t really have a system to help us really place our products where the consumer isn’t inconvenienced by having to drive to three or four different farm stands to supply what they want to buy.”

Rachel and Cliff are using a pay-what-you-can model for the farmers, rather than a subscription cost. “We really hope that we will be removing the barriers to entry for farmers to get their products online,” she said. Cliff adds that there is no commitment on the part of the farmers. They can simply use Locazoa as a directory where they list their location and encourage customers to visit them directly, or they can use it as a virtual marketplace. “They can spin-up or tear-down anytime without worrying about some subscription kicking in,” he said. “They can use it how they want and pay whatever they feel like, and we think that people will use the honour system and we think it will pay for itself. On the consumer side there will be something like a ‘tip jar’ on checkout, so they can pay what they can, if they want.” The couple are viewing Locazoa as a social enterprise, as a way to improve access to local food and to help farmers maintain their livelihood, and as a way to encourage a grassroots economy. “Food and farming in places like Prince Edward County are a very big part of our identity and our culture, and a strong local food system is something that should be supported and promoted,” said Rachel. “We are very lucky here to have an agricultural history, and we’re just trying to make it even stronger and improve our community’s resiliency.”

For more information about Locazoa, please visit locazoa.com. The website is currently under development, but there is an email link.