Antney

Well here goes and I'm hoping for some constructive comments here, but who knows

I work for the largest grower for Kensigton Pride mangoes in Australia where I run their export division (yes we do send all the best mangoes overseas)

We are now considering selling our fruit directly from the farm to home via the internet and this is where the questions come in:-

1. Do you think this is a good idea?
2. Would you be interested in purchasing a carton of mangoes (5kg and about 9 - 14 mangoes per carton)?
3. The cost delivered to your door would be about $25 - $35 depending on where you live, is this too expensive? (each mango would range in price from about $1.80 to $3.90)
4. We'd also include information on ripening, preparing and general receipe ideas, would this be useful?
5. We'd also be selling mango cutters, useful or not?
6. The website would also have information on the farms, the people and the journey the mangoes go on from field to delivery, again useful or not?

Finally, we are also considering an "adopt a tree" scheme (we have 100,000 trees) where people can sponsor a tree for say $40 - $60 for the year and for that they'd get:-

1. The knowledge that their tree would reduce their carbon footprint a little(one mango tree absorbs about 1kg of CO2 per year)
2. Updates on their tree throughout the year and photographs
3. The fist case of mangoes the tree produces delievered to their door
4. An adoption certificate


Thanks for your help on this.

Antney

bcworld

The mangoes sound too expensive.

You're cutting out the middleman, but still charging the same as they do...well at the height of the season anyway...they get really pricey here by April-ish...like $5 each.

I've signed up for a home delivery fruit n veg service before and the quality of the stuff received wasn't always that great. If you're going to charge supermarket prices I'd probably rather go to the shop and pick the ones I want.

4500 Times

Ditto

Antney

Great feedback guy's......so ideally what price would you expect to pay delivered to your door?

renth

If I were buying a carton, about $1.50 each.

Antney

Thanks

hi555

$1-$1.7 depending on the quality

Antney

Now that's an interesting comment.

When you say "the quality" what do you exactly mean by the quality?

Skin marking affects the apperarnce of the fruit, but doesn't affect the eating quality. Obviously over-ripe fruit and rots do.

We pick and pack several grades from Premium to Class 1 to Bulks to Juice, so I am very keen to understand the quality angle.

Each grade has a different price.

We export Premium and Class 1 and Coles and Woolwoths mainly sell Premium. Whereas most independent fruit shops sell Class 1 at the same price that the supermarkets sell their Premium. Some fruit shops buy bulks and pick out the Class 1 fruit and heavily discount any Class 2 fruit.

We want to offer farm fresh fruit that reflects good value for money.

We did do several farmers markets in and around Brisbane last year and our selling prices ranged from $1.50 to $3.00 for Class 1 grade.

ozzieeagle

Psst can you throw in a couple of Bananas That'll help.


30 bucks in one go is a lot to spend on one type of fruit. You maybe better marketing say 6 for 15 to 20 dollars. The alternative is finding people that will buy for two families... a much smaller market.

ozzieeagle

If your serious about this.... consider the ELADS system via Aus post... I work for post they handle bulk wine and you can bulk purchase postal rates. I would imagine freight charges are your biggest obstacle and the Elads system works really well and best for fragile items. Very few returns... and probably your cheapest freight and handling method. They'll pick up as well.

PS If I nominate you and you end up doing business, I get quite a bonus

ELADS (Electric Lodgement and Delivery Service) Tracked all the way and handled individually.

Antney

Thanks, that's really useful.

Logistics is a big part of the cost, but we also have to meet strict quarantine requlations that are imposed by each of the states.

We have fruit fly in NT and QLD and as such have to take action to meet quarantine reuirements for SA, VIC, TAS and WA who don't.