Small distributors focus on getting local produce to state’s restaurants, schools and grocery stores

BY KATHERINE YUNG
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Eric Hahn is on the front lines of a growing movement to increase sales of Michigan-grown foods in Michigan, but he’s not a farmer or a specialty grocer.

The 42-year-old Charlevoix resident runs Locavore Food Distributors, one of a handful of small companies in the state that are playing a crucial role in expanding the local foods market. They are building stronger links between Michigan’s small farms and other food producers and its restaurants, grocery stores and schools.

These small distributors are carving out their own niche in an industry long dominated by giants like Sysco and U.S. Foodservice that don’t specialize in Michigan-grown foods. The newcomers’ efforts are generating more profits for the state’s farmers and making it easier for consumers and businesses to obtain locally grown foods.

“This is a fairly new model for Michigan,” said Christine Lietzau, program manager for Select Michigan, which promotes Michigan foods to consumers and retailers. “It’s certainly becoming more prevalent.”

Locavore sells fruits, vegetables and other foods grown in northern and western Michigan. It already has 600 customers, including Clarkston Public Schools, the Plum Markets and the Sweet Lorraine restaurants.

“For me, it’s how can I drive more money back into the pockets of my farmers,” said Hahn, Locavore’s president and founder. “This is a reinvention of the value chain.”

About 43% of the $36 billion worth of food that Michiganders consume annually comes from Michigan, according to William Knudson, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University.

Hahn and others hope that amount will increase in coming years.

Distributor finds niche

For Hahn, the quest to get more Michigan-grown foods on the plates of Michiganders started several years ago with a box of cherries.

At the time, Hahn had been working as a sales representative for a Detroit-based food distributor when he got a call from a restaurant in Petoskey. The chef there complained that the cherries he had ordered came from Washington, not Michigan. Hahn bought a box of Charlevoix-grown cherries and delivered it to the restaurant.

"Why aren't we marketing more of our local stuff?" he wondered.

That question eventually led Hahn to form his own distribution company. As more consumers clamor for locally grown fruits, vegetables and other foods, distributors like Locavore that work with Michigan farms have emerged to help meet the demand. Over time, the focus on local foods is expected to bolster Michigan's economy since agriculture is one of the state's leading industries.

In the past, it hasn't been easy finding Michigan-grown foods because of the way the distribution system operated. But that's starting to change.

Hahn "is on the cutting edge of a trend that we are going to see more," said Oran Hesterman, CEO and president of the Fair Food Network, a nonprofit organization based in Ann Arbor that's trying to design a more sustainable and just food system nationally. "It's going to take a different mind-set and a different way of distribution."

Even though Michigan is one of the nation's top producers of blueberries, tart cherries, cucumbers and other foods, more than half of what residents eat comes from outside the state. That's because much of what is grown in Michigan either crosses state lines or winds up in processing plants to be turned into products such as jam, pie filling and baby food.

To help change this situation, Hahn launched a company called Cherry Capital Foods LLC in Traverse City in May 2007. Early this year, the former chef split from his business partners to form Locavore because he wanted to expand in the Detroit area and they didn't.

Locavore now has eight employees and a distribution center in Eastern Market, with plans to open a stall there soon. Hahn buys produce and other foods from more than 100 farmers, processors and packing houses. That's a big leap from when he first started as "one guy with a van and a plan," selling cherries, peaches, asparagus and potatoes.

"We're seeing a big increase in the demand for local foods," Hahn said, noting that strawberries grown in western Michigan are his biggest seller.

Locavore doesn't compete directly with large distributors like Sysco because it offers different kinds of foods, such as eight ball zucchini, a round zucchini-squash hybrid. It's willing to make small deliveries every couple of days. And Hahn regularly sends newsletters that inform his customers about the latest fresh foods available.

"They do a good job of getting a lot of stuff that a lot of people don't focus on," said Steve Caramagno, produce manager at Fresh Farms Market, a specialty market in Grosse Pointe. Thanks to Locavore, he's selling cherry-blended cider.

Michigan's diverse number of crops makes it easy for Locavore to offer a variety of different foods in the summer. In the winter, the company mostly sells apples and potatoes along with some processed Michigan-made foods like juices, salsas and jams.

According to several of Locavore's customers, buying local makes a difference when it comes to taste and nutrition. Janet Allen, food service director for the Clarkston Public Schools and president of the School Nutrition Association of Michigan, said that students tell her, "Wow, these apples taste so fresh."

But the local foods movement also has gained traction because people recognize the benefits it can yield for the state's ailing economy.

"I am giving money back to my own community," said Lorraine Platman, who has long sought out Michigan-grown foods for her three Sweet Lorraine's restaurants in metro Detroit.

At Michigan State University, 10% of the $16 million the school spends on food each year goes to Michigan producers, and that amount is expected to increase, said Marta Mittermaier, the university's associate director of culinary support services. Through Locavore, MSU now buys applesauce that contains apples from Michigan, not Pennsylvania.

"This is big," Mittermaier said of the local foods movement. "We feel, as a public institution, it's the right thing to do."

The state's farmers, of course, are the main beneficiaries. They earn more selling their crops locally than sending them to a processing plant. For example, a pound of cherries sold to a grocery store in the state can fetch $1.25 versus only 20 cents at the processor, Hahn said.

Richard Friske, owner of Friske Orchards near Charlevoix, said Locavore sells to places that most growers like himself don't have the time to visit.

"I believe in what Eric is doing," Friske said. "Locavore does give smaller growers an opportunity to move some products in new, innovative ways."

Locavore's ambitions extend beyond Michigan. It's making weekly deliveries of Michigan-grown apples, peaches and other foods to 485 Chicago public schools, and two of its recent hires work in south Florida. Michigan's farms produce more food than its residents can eat, so out-of-state sales are necessary.

In the future, Hahn hopes to buy food from urban farms in Detroit.

"As that effort continues to grow, we want to be able to market more and more of that," he said.

Contact KATHERINE YUNG: 313-222-8763 or kyung@freepress.com
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