Wal-Mart to Double their Locally Grown Produce in 2017

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Wal-Mart's produce aisles will soon have a lot more locally-grown produce.
Wal-Mart’s produce aisles will soon have a lot more locally-grown produce.

If I were in the produce business, I would be giving out a few high fives about now.  I read a recent issue of Packer News, the Business News Source for the Produce Industry, about Wal-Mart’s plans for the future.   It’s good news for farms since the giant retailer promises to double the amount of locally grown produce they will buy.

Their new target for their spending on local produce (defined as being grown in the state in which it was grown) is $825 million, today they spend $424 million.

“Customers love local produce,” said Ragan Dickens of Wal-Mart. They are also insisting that by 2025, all packaging has to be recyclable. And there needs to be less of it.

Produce is  a tough business, it’s hard to come out on top.

I think anyone with a farm will have a huge and reliable customer in Wal-Mart, as long as they don’t hammer each farmer hard the way the do their other suppliers.