PROFITABLE HERB GROWING
(Page 8 of 9)
March/April 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors
HOW TO SELL HERB PLANTS AND HERB SEEDS
RELATED CONTENT
If you have a good location that is accessible and lends itself to retail sales, then you can sell herb plants and seeds direct to the customer. To derive the maximum profits that a herb business can give, you should plan to sell both retail and wholesale. Along with your sales yard line up stores that handle bedding plants in the spring of the year to also take on your herb plants. One good supermarket can sell scores of herb plants on a busy weekend. Three or four good stores can almost provide you with an income during the planting season. Wholesale accounts will expect to buy plants so that they can make a 40% markup. For instance if the herb plants retail for $1 each, the store will expect to buy them for 60¢, so that they have 40¢ a plant to work with. With the annual herb plants which will sell for considerably less, some stores might be content to work on a 33 and 1/3 percent margin. Much of this pricing will be determined by local conditions and the prevailing prices of your area. Don't forget—costs are going up.
HERB SEEDS
Herb seeds are packed in small cellophane envelopes; 1/4 teaspoonful for the very small seeded varieties and 1/2 teaspoonful for the larger seeded varieties. The cellophane envelope is then placed in a manilla envelope that is slightly larger. On the outer manilla envelope, type or have printed the name of the herb. All seed orders should include cultural instructions. The seeds can be sold through garden and seed stores, and occasionally some florist shops will handle them. Sale of herb seeds locally will always be limited, and the best chance of making a profit in this phase of the business is in mailorder distribution. Instead of being able to reach the few thousand customers located in your area, through mailorder you can reach hundreds of thousands scattered across the United States. Further in this course we will deal more fully with the mailorder business as it applies to the herb grower.
THE FUTURE OF THE HERB BUSINESS
It is estimated that the French use twenty-five times more herbs in their cooking than the Americans. The Italians, Greeks, and Spanish use twenty times more. The herb market in this country has been a sleeping giant that is just beginning to awaken. If people in the United States just used a minimum of herb seasoning, the market would increase tenfold. Not only is there room for more herb growers, but they are badly needed to supply the increase in business that lies ahead. Besides the market for culinary herbs, there is a growing demand for the aromatic herb novelties.
A FEW FINAL WORDS AND OBSERVATIONS
We hope that in spite of this booklet's shortcomings, we have been able to give the reader information, guidance, and encouragement to go into a business that has great possibilities. Many people have started their own profitable herb business using these plans. You, also, can do the same. The hardest part of any business is in starting. The Chinese in their infinite wisdom have a saying, "To walk a mile, you must take the first step". We might borrow that thought and say, "To raise an acre of herbs, a single seed must first be planted". Good luck to you.
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