Growing & selling excess allotment produce

[MarkPelican]

Forage, if you're thinking of doing this seriously, might you be better off seeing if you can rent some space from a local farmer? That way you would get a genuine cost (allotments are usually subsidised), no problems with the legalities of selling produce and (if it works) space to expand beyond the 250sq meters of an allotment.

I watched a programme the other day (Farmer's Country Showdown I think it was) where there was a guy in Cambridge making a living for himself & his family on a two acre plot selling vegetables & fruit at Farmer's Markets. So its obviously possible.

[Mitzi]

Something to bear in mind is that your surplus will usually coincide with when things are at their cheapest in the shops, so you would have to offer something a bit different in order to attract customers. Organic produce attracts a premium but I don't think you could sell it as organic without Soil Association certification which might cost a bit (but I may be wrong about that.)

So you might want to look into unusual colours, quirky shapes etc. Anything that will help it stand out from the norm.

[Bluenowhere]

We are on a privately managed site, volunteer comittee, rented from council and we like most sites are a member of AGF, our tenancies prohibit selling. As we have a waiting list I’m pretty sure anyone wanting to grow on a commercial basis wouldn’t be allowed regardless of the ‘flexibility’ exhibited in other areas size of sheds, polytunnel etc.

I’d imagine your London plot is also under great demand and you may well end up losing the plot if someone complains/informs the comittee particularly if you are planning something visible like veg boxes or markets as an outlet. I’d ask their permission before going further and as all statutory allotment sites prohibit selling it’s unlikely that you are going to find a partner on here, that’s simple fact not negativity on anyone’s part or personal views on whether selling should be allowed.

However, I wish you success with your enterprise to get away from the 9-5 daily grind.

Assuming you get permission or find a different site/land as others have said it might be a tougher market to sell surplus than you might imagine as quite often excess produce gets passed for free to quite a wide circle of friends/family and neighbours particularly in a London where plot holders have less space to store their excesses. London has loads of great local markets were fresh produce is pretty cheap in season if you avoid the tourist traps of places like borough market etc so the price premium may not be as great as you think, and on a relatively small scale may not be hugely profitable if you are comparing this type of market to the costs of producing. I would say your first step should be to go round all the markets within a reasonable radius of you and compare produce/prices at different times of year.