Open Market Consortium: Creating Economic Opportunities for Small and Mid-size Growers

Opening Markets for Small and Mid-size Specialty Crop Growers

For the past decade, consumer demand for local specialty crops has created unique economic opportunities for small and mid-size farmers. However, the disconnect between farmers’ supply and institutional buyers’ demand is problematic for farmers who lack the financial resources to bear the risk of increasing specialty crop production. New technologies are needed to scale up regional production of diverse produce.

The Open Market Consortium for Specialty Crops (OMC) is a group of institutions, farmers and non-governmental organizations focused on the research and piloting of an open-source supply-demand framework that uses blockchain technology, which allows for decentralized, transparent historical records of assets. The framework helps establish protocols for specialty crop markets and allows intermediaries to connect small farmers and institutional buyers, enabling profitable regional specialty crop production.

OMC members are concerned that new technology like blockchain is being incorporated into food supply chains in ways that benefit larger farming and retail businesses, further limiting small producers and purchasers’ ability to participate in local and regional markets. An open-source, decentralized distributed ledger will enable OMC to expand the opportunities for crop diversification, economic development, increased biodiversity and markets that are easier for small, mid-size and beginning farmers to enter.

Why this research is important

The OMC project enables regional specialty crop markets to scale by simplifying contracting between buyers and specialty crop growers. The project will:

• Enable growers to monetize special crop attributes, such as “local” or “heirloom,” giving them access to higher returns on crop investment.

• Open opportunities for growers to access new markets and provide more products and services.
• Connect institutional buyers with reliable specialty crop producers, providing consistent supply of difficult-to-obtain products.
• Digitize product attributes to allows institutional buyers to valuate products quickly and consistently.
• Link demand with supply to ensure nutritional, affordable produce for consumers.
• Meet consumer demands for products from farms that demonstrate environmental and social practices.
• Combine standards with traceability and transparency to respond to consumer food safety concerns.
• Improve supply chain organization to reduce food waste and lessen greenhouse gases from rotting produce and transportation emissions.