Winners and losers in the coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus crisis has us firmly in its grip. At gebana, the virus has affected us in different ways. We’re working from home, direct shipping sales have increased, and in the South, a reduced number of people are working in processing, for safety reasons. Each day, we adapt to the situation and try to make the best of it.

Lately, we've been hearing about online shops being unprepared, consumers panic buying and farmers who can hardly keep up with demand. Even though these situations are stressful, they've been a blessing to many. They are the winners in this crisis, which has also affected and transformed the food sector.

But there are also losers. At the top of this list are restaurants and farmers' markets and, as a result, the family farmers who sell their produce through these channels. What will happen to their perishable products now? What about the kid goats destined for Easter dinner, which no one will want to eat later? What about ProSpecieRara tomato seedlings, which were sold almost exclusively at farmers' markets?

Losers in the crisis need support

No sooner had we moved to working from home did we receive the first queries from family producers asking us these exact questions. It didn't take long for our team to decide that we were going to help these families. And we soon came up with our "Farmers Seeking Customers" campaign.

The idea behind it is simple. Family farmers struggling to sell their products can contact us. We upload their products to our shop, promote them, sell them for a small profit and issue the invoice.

We advise the family farmers on packaging and shipping and coordinate the delivery dates. The families then send the products directly from their farms to the customers. This way, no additional warehousing is required, and costs are kept low. The price the farmer receives is also higher and there is no unnecessary human contact (which is quite a strange thing to say).

After just two days, we launched the project and hired an additional team, which now supports the families, registers their products and puts them online. We're very proud to see how quickly all of this came together and are already receiving thanks and positive feedback from both producers and customers.

Why so much meat and alcohol?

At the start of our campaign, we were surprised to hear from so many meat and alcohol producers. But it's obvious when you think about it: Wine, spirits, meat and various other specialities are products served at restaurants and sold at farmers' markets.

It's now also become apparent that even some farmers specialised in seedling sales are running into trouble. But they also require more shipping assistance and advice. After all, a tomato sprout is more delicate than a bottle of wine! Our two years of experience with the Global Farmer' Market subscription, shipping fresh Swiss vegetables, fruits from the South and eggs is proving quite valuable in this situation.

What lies ahead?

No one knows how long the crisis will last, nor how long markets and restaurants will remain closed. We're trying to bring Switzerland into our Global Farmer's Market operation to help the losers in the coronavirus crisis and supply our customers with first-class products – some of them from Switzerland.

We're also testing a future business model with our Farmers Seeking Customers project. Perhaps we should continue working as the most direct link between family farmers and customers in Switzerland in the future. But this decision ultimately lies with the family farmers and our customers.