Assessing Market Channel Performance for Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Producers

Though data have long been collected to educate producers about how to improve farm performance through benchmarking, this information is almost exclusively available by commodity and not by market channel. Further, there is evidence that the small and mid-scale producers that dominate these markets often do not keep detailed financial records, despite clear evidence that doing so improves the viability of operations. This paper uses a Colorado case study of the Market Channel Assessment Tool (MCAT) to determine recruitment methods that maximize participation among small and mid-scale producers. We find there are four best practices associated with successful farmer recruitment.