New Purdue institute to focus on helping farmer entrepreneurs
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Purdue University has launched a new institute to help farmers develop novel food and beverage ideas.
The Institute for Food Product Innovation and Commercialization is funded by a $1.5 million grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Purdue said the aim is to help farmers develop a recipe, make a product, understand food safety and assess the market potential.
“This grant is focused on farmers who want to add value to their product,” Dharmendra Mishra, institute director and associate professor of food science, said in a news release.
Entrepreneurs face many steps and challenges in converting commodity crops into new products for retail sales, he said. “We want to remove those hurdles for farmer-entrepreneurs.”
The institute is a joint effort of Purdue’s departments of food science and agricultural economics and is part of the USDA Agriculture Innovation Center Program.
“It’s bringing together the technical expertise on food manufacturing and food safety from food science, and the marketing, entrepreneurship and business management strengths of ag econ,” said Kenneth Foster, the institute’s assistant director and professor of agricultural economics.
Examples of value-added products include ice cream from dairy farmers, salsa from tomato growers or syrup from beekeepers, the university said.
Sales of specialty foods continue to grow, according to the Specialty Food Association’s annual industry report, exceeding $206 billion. The growth in dozens of specialty categories has helped fuel the trend.
The new institute’s program has three phases. Phase 1 consists of six online training courses that introduce farmers to the basics of food product design, food safety and business planning. Phase 2 features a one-day, on-campus workshop on the food product life cycle. Phase 3 provides on-campus feedback and assessments of their ideas.
Serving on the institute’s board of directors are representatives from Indiana Farm Bureau, Indiana Grown, Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Indiana Dairy Producers, Indiana Vegetable Growers Association, Indiana Nut and Fruit Growers Association, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and Indiana Soybean Alliance.