Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council

The VCMI team had a busy fall with numerous presentations made, workshops organized and delivered, and events attended.

Here is a list of activities: presented at a meeting of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) Extension Coordinators (Oct. 6), organized and delivered the Value Chains 101: What They Are and How They Can Boost Your Business workshop (Oct. 13), attended the Dairy Ingredient Seminar (Oct. 14), attended Take The Leap 3 Rural Entrepreneurship Conference (Oct. 23 and 24), attended Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Health Claims Seminar (Oct. 26), attended the Farm Women’s Conference (Nov. 1 to 3), had display at the Food Safety Conference (Nov. 4) and the Eastern Prairies Organic Tradeshow (Nov. 16 and 17), organized and delivered the Canadian Value Chain Network’s Module 3: Gathering Marketing Intelligence workshop (Nov. 19), attended Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council Forum (Nov. 30), had display at the Manitoba Forage Council’s Grazing School (Dec. 1), and presented at Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiative’s Winning Ways to Market Food workshop (Dec. 1).

As part of our mandate to promote public awareness of the value chain model, we organized and hosted a workshop titled Value Chains 101: What They Are and How They Can Boost Your Business on Oct. 13. The featured speaker was Terry Ackerman from Guelph, Ont.

Ackerman is an experienced business and marketing consultant who shared many personal stories of his experience in the food processing and marketing worlds. His presentation stressed the importance of collaboration and information sharing to an organization’s bottom line and was well received.

This workshop was notable because it was the first time VCMI utilized video conference technology to broadcast a workshop across the province. By using this technology, we attracted 59 participants at 16 sites around the province – from The Pas to Steinbach and from Brandon to Beausejour.

On Nov. 19, we organized and delivered Module 3: Gathering Marketing Intelligence, part of the Canadian Value Chain Network’s module series of workshops. Participants learned tips on product concept development, consumer market trends, and branding and marketing techniques. We had another impressive turnout for this workshop with 45 participants across nine video conference sites.   

We are hosting our next workshop on Jan. 28 and it will also be video conferenced across the province, so please check our website, www.valuechainmb.ca, for available sites.

Module 4: Partnering and Collaboration: How to Approach Retailers will give participants tools and tips on how to play the retail game. Topics that will be covered include understanding the retail environment, identifying prospective retail partners, approaching retailers – what routes, what strategy, developing a proposal and meeting presentation, and managing the account.

This workshop will be valuable to any producer, processor or entrepreneur who wants to learn crucial skills needed to get a product onto the retail shelf. As well, these skills will be useful for creating and protecting a value chain that ensures a product stays on the shelf, sells well and increases profits for all involved!

~ Eugene Warwaruk, MRAC Value Chain Coordinator