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Episode Summary
When you’re sold on the idea of growing good quality produce to serve your community and you want to try it out yourself, how exactly do you start and run a local farm business when small, local farms aren’t really a thing where you’re at?
In this episode of Carrot Cashflow, we’re talking to microgreens grower Reuven Marriott to share us the trials and tribulations he’s faced starting and running a hyper-local microgreens business in another country.
Today’s Guest: Reuven Marriott
Reuven and his wife Orya are the entrepreneurial couple behind Israel Microgreens, a hyper-local microgreens business in Aluma, Israel. Their passion for providing premium, nutrient-dense farm-to-table produce led them to start growing microgreens for their community.
Relevant Links
Israel Microgreens – Website | Facebook | Instagram
In this episode of Carrot Cashflow
- Diego introduces the episode’s guest, Reuven Marriott (00:32)
- Some things to know about growing microgreens in Israel (01:55)
- The staple microgreen varieties in Israel (03:27)
- Are there a lot of microgreens growers locally? (04:27)
- What it’s like growing microgreens on a small-scale (06:11)
- The challenge was how to scale up the business (06:56)
- Hitting the market that the bigger distributors aren’t (07:24)
- An opportunity to put out more exotic products (08:22)
- Handling orders and invoices (09:31)
- Delivering fresh-cut microgreens within 24 hours (11:27)
- Announcing the menu and getting the orders in (14:07)
- A more effective communication tool than emails (16:46)
- How many trays did Reuven start out in a week? (17:55)
- The different options for scaling up (18:42)
- Price difference for wholesale versus retail (21:39)
- Some advice if you’re deciding on whether to go wholesale or retail (22:55)
- Landing on a wholesale price that made sense (25:35)
- The biggest production costs and cutting down on them (27:41)
- Do the customers care if there’s a label on the box? (31:42)
- Analyzing costs and investments on equipment and infrastructure (33:50)
- A microgreens business versus a microgreens side hustle (37:34)
- A middle ground between a small microgreens operation and a big microgreens operation (39:22)
- The labor difference between doing 50 and 150 trays (42:14)
- The biggest fear about going from 350 to 1350 trays (48:49)
- The number of customers to diversify and become anti-fragile (50:27)
- Why even grow the business when the business is self-sufficient? (52:46)
- The main goal of the business right now (55:39)
- Running a business is like playing a game in real life (57:07)
- Is there a chance that Israel Microgreens can saturate the country? (01:00:11)
- Can the business grow enough that the bigger players start to take notice? (01:01:51)
- From small local farmer to a faceless business entity (01:03:11)
- Where to find Reuven Marriott and keep up with his microgreens business (01:06:00)
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