Reply To: Herbal gardening
Hi Deborah,
Starting a new business often takes a lot of time and research, as you are finding out, for sure!
You are totally on the right track and ultimately only you can fully answer the questions you are asking since it is your business and you know how and what you wish to do with it.
Yes, cold calling some companies that you might wish to sell to is a great place to start, also perhaps contacting Clinical Herbalists directly to see what plants, quality, volume/weight and pricing they are looking for as well (some herbalists would really like to have direct sales- but this also depends on whether it is something you’re interested in).
Another suggestion I would have is to contact some folks who are currently growing herbs for wholesale and ask if they would be willing to have a conversation about their experience. They will have so much insight into what is going well, issues, concerns, their relationship with companies who buy herbs from them etc. In the world of herbal medicine, I think it’s important to work together, often you will find these growers supportive and friendly.
The best plan is to start connecting with all of these people and then a clearer plan on how to move forward will appear (e.g. whether you grow herbs for samples, what scale you want or need to grow, what prices people are generally charging, what quality items people are looking for, etc.)
Wishing you the best in the growing wholesale endeavour, we need as many beautiful organic plants as we can get!
Benna