Farmers adapt well to new sales model

Thanks to COVID-19, Farm Source has closed all its stores: orders are placed online or over the phone.

Farmers can either collect their purchases outside the store or are dropped off at “zero-contact” collection point on-farm.

Farm Source head Richard Allen says the service has been well adopted by farmers across the country. 

“Sales traffic was high in the first few days, which was not unexpected. Traffic has now reduced to more normal levels and aligned to more seasonal patterns.”

“Our phone-based service centre and online sales channel have come into their own: staff and farmers have adopted and respected this way of operating in a short period of time.”

Allen, who also looks after milk collection, says the co-op isn’t experiencing disruption or significant drop in production at this stage. 

“Agriculture essential and prioritised in the lock-down for business continuity: farmers continuing to work hard on-farm and we are continuing to collect and process their milk.”