Are people still buying microgreens in the UK in 2023?
This question is probably up there in the top 3 questions you’ll need to be able to answer before setting up your microgreens business! You can be growing an abundance of the most perfect microgreens but without having anyone to sell them to regularly and consistently, you don't have a business.
So I’m here today, on the last day of February 2023, to happily report that yes, people are still (very much so) buying (and enjoying!) microgreens in the UK!
My own microgreens sales are continuing to increase week on week this year as we head on into spring time and so are many other UK microgreens growers’ who I regularly chat with. Just this morning, one of my regular customers on our street has just messaged to say another 2 of our neighbours also want a regular order starting from next week :) News travels fast when you have fresh, local produce available!
So if you’re currently questioning whether a microgreens business venture is worth pursuing right now, in my opinion, it absolutely is. Providing fresh, high quality, nutrient dense food for your local community is incredibly important. And people love to eat it! Do your research in your local area, get your pricing right and there’s an exciting new business there to be had!
Who will buy your microgreens?
The simple answer is – lots of people will! The popularity of microgreens in the UK is still very much on the increase, whether that’s with home consumers or in the hospitality industry. People are increasingly valuing their health, appreciate the much better quality of small scale local food production and want to buy their food from local suppliers.
This means you'll have lots of potential customers for your microgreens.
Your job is then to find them and make sure your produce is getting to them regularly. Which is the key to all of this.
So let’s deep dive into who you can sell to:
You can sell microgreens through a range of different customer streams in the UK. This is great for maximising your weekly revenue, plus it also masively helps to keep the business side of things more resilient and sustainable.
UK customer streams for microgreens include:
1. Directly to Home Customers – through a home delivery programme, local collection points, directly from your farm.
2. Directly to chefs in cafes, restaurants, delis as well as street food vendors and private chefs – chefs are used to buying in microgreens and micro herbs, so it will be a much easier sell, especially at the quality you’ll be growing your greens at.
3. To farm, grocery and health food shops – for them to sell on to the public.
4. To a larger distributor – who will buy in bulk amounts and sell them on for you.
My step by step recommendations for starting to supply microgreens to UK customer streams:
➜ Start small. Nail your growing cycles first, approach your first customer with samples and start to supply them consistently well.
➜ Then - take on another customer. Start supplying them consistently well, then move on. Rinse and repeat as many times as you want.
➜ Start supplying home customers first. Get really good at supplying this customer stream. Then move onto the next stream - restaurants or shops.
➜ I recommend against approaching a wholesale distributor (much larger numbers, lower price point), until you know the business well. Their first questions will be - what variety can you supply us, in what quantiites every week, for what price. You need to know these answers for certain before you take on a larger contract. Try and go in there too soon whilst you’re inexperienced and not only will it be stressful for you, you could also damage a potential future relationship with them.
Fluctuations in microgreens sales
Try and prevent fluctuations as much as possible in the first place!
With all your new customers you take on, your ultimate aim should always be:
For them to set up a regular order with you, delivered or collected on the same day, every week.
For them to order the same variety and quantity each week.
This is an ideal situation. You’ll then know exactly what to grow, for the exact day and in the exact quantity. This will hugely help you with your crop planning and weekly timetable of tasks.
If you supply the majority of your customers in this way, then being able to accommodate a little leeway for ‘extras’ each week should be doable. Whether they’re add -ons to existing orders or new orders altogether. The more experienced you become in your business and the more micros you start to grow, the more leeway you’ll have each week.
Also, always be honest with your customers, they’ll really appreciate it. If one of your crops isn’t going to be ready in time, just let them know when you can harvest it and it to them for. If you need another 2 weeks to grow more crops to start a new standing order, then tell them that. Try and secure a regular identical order based on you telling a customer you’re a small scale producer and you grow to order - this will enable you to grow their greens extremely fresh for them and will keep food waste to a minimum.
Seasonal Fluctuations in microgreens sales
August and early September tend to be a lower sales time of year for most in the UK (which surprised me when I first realised this). People are more likely to go on holiday in August and pause their microgreens orders during this time. It’s also a time when University students are out of the town/city, which can have a knock-on effect on home and restaurant sales too. (if you’re in a uni city!).
The opposite tends to be the case for tourist areas! If you serve a touristy town in the UK, then June, July and August will tend be your biggest months, with the winter slowing right down (if you don’t venture further afield for your sales). Think about how you can maintain a good level of sales during the winter months.
I’ve always been busy right up to Christmas week (parties, events etc), then quieter in the first 3 weeks of January.
Once you get going and really start to notice any seasonal fluctuations, then really push your sales and extra sales in your busy months. For me that tends to be March to July and October to December. This will increase the resilience of your business and ability to weather those quieter times.
So the local market for microgreens is officially out there. People want to eat your fresh microgreens!
If you’re just starting out on your microgreens business journey, you just need to know how to find them, sell to them and keep them as a regular customer!
———SPRING ENROLMENT IS NOW OPEN FOR MY UK MICROGREENS BUSINESS COURSE! ———
Packed with 13 Modules, the course will take you from keen beginner to a successful and professionally set up microgreens farmer who makes recurring revenue week on week from selling your microgreens to your local community.
And to follow up from today’s blog post, Module 9 of the course is Selling Your Microgreens. It teaches you the following:
1. Exactly how to sell your microgreens to the 4 main customer streams in the UK - video, text and downloadable PDFs.
2. How to price your different microgreens for the UK market - video and text.
3. How to use social media to drive your sales, including 8 social media post ideas for your microgreens business - text.
Plus you’ll get the following additonal resources:
4. An invoice template that you can edit for your own farm - MS Word doc download.
5. Marketing material templates for both restaurant and home customers - text and MS Word download
6. A video of me delivering my weekly microgreens to my home customers!