|
|
 |
|
SARE 1997 Highlights
Cereal Maker Rolling Oat Products
SARE "seed" money that helped launch a value-adding, regional
food business is giving some farmers a stronger market for organic
oats. The fledgling Vermont Cereal Co. was paying high transportation
costs to process food-grade rolled oats in Ontario, Canada. A SARE producer
grant paid part of an engineering consultant's fee to design a local
production line in Cabot, Vt., cutting processing expenses in half. "We
roll organic oats thick and chewy and toast them to a nice flavor,"
notes company cofounder Andrew Leinoff, who knew the product would impress
health conscious buyers. Sizable orders from two distributors and a Boston
supermarket chain will allow the firm to buy better equipment, hire another
worker and increase weekly processing capability from 3,500 pounds of
rolled oats to 18,000 pounds.
The company hopes to process an average of
6,000 pounds of rolled or chopped oats weekly for sale in six
package sizes. Nine farmers will grow hulled oats for the company
this year. They could gross more than $300 per acre and share in
company profits. Dairy farmers eager for low cost organic feed
snap up whatever broken oats, hulls and flour the mill generates,
keeping even more resources in the local economy. (Northeast
Region project FNE94-59.)
 Top
|
|
