Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Resources
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a type of direct-to-consumer marketing wherein customers enter into an agreement with a farm to purchase a designated amount of product from that farm, that year. Traditionally, a CSA model is one in where a customer signs up for a CSA “share” prior to the growing season, guaranteeing the farmer income for the entirety of their CSA growing season. In the last several years, the definition of what a CSA is has dramatically expanded to encompass a wide variety of farmer-member agreements. However, CSAs typically have a few common characteristics: an emphasis on local products, a share/subscription system sold prior to the season, and periodic deliveries or pick-ups for members/subscribers.
Key Requirements
| Marketing Time Required | High |
| Required Product Volume | Low-Medium |
| Potential Sales Volume | Low-Medium |
| Price Per Item | High |
| Difficulty of getting into this market | Low |
| Importance of Product Quality & Shelf-Life | Medium-High |
How do I get started in CSA?
Getting started in a CSA requires extensive production knowledge and marketing skills. Having a CSA operation means committing product to your customers on a regular basis. This is different from a farmers market model, where you show up each week with whatever you harvested to sell that day. In a CSA model, you commit to your members up-front, and they often pay up-front. Because of this relationship, you are guaranteed income and your customers are guaranteed product. It is up to you to determine whether you want to offer a customizable share or a pre-determined share, or something in between. Starting with a small CSA with a few members would be a good way to experiment with your capacity of the crop planning, production, and marketing that is required of a CSA farmer.
Challenges
- Extensive out-of-season marketing: required each year due to annual member turnover
- Heavy reliance on word-of-mouth marketing: smaller customer demographic that is willing to commit to a season’s worth of produce
- Heavy customer service: CSA members are often in constant communication with their farmer about recipes ideas, logistics of missed pick-ups, upcoming available produce, etc. Many of these questions can be mitigated with a well-written CSA membership agreement
- Requires careful crop planning & season extension: attracting members requires early and late season offerings and highly diverse product selection
- Season-long commitment: CSA membership agreements are time intensive and reduce price flexibility
Opportunities
- Can reduce risk and capital needs: Many customers pay at least partially up-front and this provides cash flow before the season and helps estimate product need
- May reduce customer sensitivity to cosmetic defects: due to the close farm-customer relationship, customers may care less about aesthetics of product
- Can help build community around your brand: Typical CSA customers are very interested in knowing about their farmer/farming operations
- Potential reduced marketing time during season: Your produce is already sold, so your marketing efforts will be focused on maintaining your relationship with your CSA members primarily
Other Resources for CSA
- University of Kentucky CSA Production Manual
- UK-CSA Share & Field Planner (Excel Workbook)
- UK-CSA Fertility Planner (Excel Workbook)
- CSA For Beginners Course (Free)
- A beginnier course from non-profit Texas Center for Local Food
- CSA Starts Here
- Video Series from the national CSA Innovation Network
- Cultivate Customers & Retain Value: A Guide to CSA Retention
- CSA Customer Engagement
- A CCD video with Maggie Bowling from Old Homeplace Farm
- CSA Marketing Handbook
- CSA in Kentucky Facebook Group
- What Should be Included in a CSA Membership Agreement?
- A short publication from University of Maryland Extension
- CSA to University Toolkit
- UK Organic Farming Unit Videos
- University of Kentucky CSA Site