Brad Blymier started as a small pedestrian farmer on the eastern shore of Virginia over 12 years ago. Very quickly he realized his natural gift for connecting with chefs and farmers and started helping neighboring farms sell their product. Within a couple of years, he decided to focus solely on the distribution side of the business. Since then, War Shore has grown into one of the largest specialty shellfish distributors in the “DMV” (DC/MD/noVA). Today they deliver oysters, lobster meat, scallops, clams, mussels and other specialty creatures of the sea to a growing array of chefs and major supermarkets. With their new Maine buying station (Maine Oyster Initiative) they are one track to buy over 1.5 million Maine oysters this year which is about 15% of their overall oyster sales.
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Meet a Distributor: War Shore
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Insurance: Recordkeeping Matters
Below is a nice description of the new ELAP insurance program from the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. Farmers will be wise to heed their advice and keep good records.
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Oyster Tracker is now BlueTrace
Four years ago, we had the idea of helping oyster farmers improve their operations. Today, we have over 120 clients in 12 states and 4 countries. We have employees, investors and even won a major grant from NOAA. All this would not be possible without the support of so many. Thank you!
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Printers & Supply Chains
Supply Chains are the lifeblood of our economy. From how a shellfish gets from the tideline to the table, to how a semi-conductor chip gets from a factory in Asia to a printer on a farm.
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Tag Printing 101—Say Goodbye to Preprinted Tags
Forget Pre-Printed Tags: How Oyster Tracker Can Help Your Shellfish Farm Transition Into The 21st Century
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Cape Cod Farmers and Wholesalers
One of the great joys of this job is visiting our clients. Last week I visited a bunch on Cape Cod and got a couple of fun videos.
Virtual Tradeshow
We did a virtual tradeshow with the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. Over 90 people showed up!!
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Good News from our Clients
The Aquaculture North America just published it's latest magazine, and our clients are in two separate articles:
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Working with Distributors
Almost every farm starts out selling to local restaurants, but as they scale distributors (aka wholesalers) play an increasingly important role. You will make more money per shell at a restaurant, but there is a limit to how much restaurants can buy. If you are producing more than a few local restaurants and some consumers can absorb, you are probably going to need to work with distributors. We've been talking to a lot of distributors lately and here are some of the things farmers should know.