Leopold Center - Connecting a premium product with farmer profits

What do farmers from Quebec have in common with Iowa farmers? They both produce unique food products -- and they would like to increase their profitability for doing so.

Iowa farmers may find some hopeful lessons in the story of a group of producers from this eastern Canadian province who banded together to link their region’s very special lamb to higher prices for the producers.

The unique Canadian lamb program was the subject of an October seminar at Iowa State on "Surviving Globalization by Producing Differently: Charlevoix’s Lamb Label." The Leopold Center’s Marketing and Food Systems Initiative co-sponsored the presentation by Charlevoix Agritourism coordinator Mario Duchesne and local development counselor Nancy Chabot. They are working with the area's farmer-innovators to integrate the promotion of Charlevoix products and tourism. As program coordinator, Duchesne is trying to build a program that markets Charlevoix lamb as a branded product that also rewards the region’s producers, restaurateurs and consumers.

Protecting the Charlevoix cachet
Farmers along the St. Lawrence River had a proud tradition of producing a very high-quality, local forage- and grains-finished Charlevoix lamb that was prized by local chefs. Lamb producers at the Eboulmontaise Farm, Lucie Cadieux and Vital Gagnon, had spent more than 10 years developing their unique product and working with other producers to increase the number of lambs available to market. However, dishes labeled "Charlevoix lamb" started turning up in far flung and highly improbable places. Concerned that the value of their product was being diluted with inauthentic substitutes, the area’s farmers banded together to protect their specialty meat.

Duchesne and Chabot have helped producers set up a program with strict rules for production and certification of lambs raised by participating farmers. The program allows farmers to control the quality of the product with standards that distinguish their lamb from the conventional product. Producers determine before slaughter whether the animal meets those standards, then the meat is tested and inspected by the processor. If it passes, the meat can be certified by the Quebec government as official Charlevoix lamb and sold for a premium to area chefs. "The best way to compete is to have a high quality and different product," according to Duchesne.

Selling points for Charlevoix-branded lambs are simple:

Farmers used their production regimen and geographic region's assets as the basis to file for brand protection from the Canadian government and won the right to the exclusive use of the Charlevoix label on a pilot basis. Their lamb was the first North American agricultural product to obtain legal protection similar to the geographical indicators (GIs) used to brand products in the European Union. (GIs identify a product or good as originating in a locality where its quality, reputation or other characteristics are clearly attributable to its geographic region, offering farmers a way to expand their offerings and retain more of the profit from the product.)

Importance of the Charlelvoix cachet
Chabot works primarily on development issues related to agricultural production and counsels the local agritourism industry. Duchesne, who produces meat goats on his farm, is directly involved in the Charlevoix lamb project as coordinator. Both have no illusions about the importance of their project to area farmers.

Since 1961, the number of farmers in the Charlevoix region has fallen from 1,052 to 200. While there are a few large operations, many of the farmers now work at jobs off the farm. Those who want to stay on the land are looking for options to remain profitable in farming.

When the lamb project began a decade ago, producers were openly skeptical. This year at a marketing conference sponsored by a local university, producers were asking, "What can we do?" Chabot says, "We have conventional agriculture in the region, but now it is a matter of survival for farmers."

How can their success story be applied to Iowa farmers? Marketing program leader Rich Pirog sees several ways that the Charlevoix experience could be adapted to support unique products grown or raised in Iowa.

"The Iowa Hawkeye-Delicious apple, Muscatine melon, Maytag Blue cheese, and region-characteristic wines are all examples of place-based foods that could increase economic benefits for Iowa farmers, processors and rural communities," he said. The United States has product quality protection through certification marks that can serve a purpose similar to that of the GI protection that will grace official Charlevoix lamb products in 2005.

Cultivating the Charlevoix cachet
In addition to profiting from their lamb products, farmers also rely on strong support from the tourist industry. Agritourism is popular in Quebec, especially in the Charlevoix region. The enterprises got a big boost in 1995 when a group of specialty food producers, local chefs and the regional tourism board began to showcase their wares on the Circuit de la Route des Saveurs of Charlevoix—or the Flavour Trail.

This culinary journey unites 14 specialty food producers and 22 inns, hotels and restaurants where local products are served. Participating establishments are identified with wooden signs bearing the symbol of an orange chef's hat. Visitors can stop at any establishment along the Flavour Trail and be assured that they will find top-quality, fresh, local food. One chef said, "In France, fine producers don't look to get big, they look to get better. Now here in Quebec, our producers are learning to stay small."

Charlevoix itself features a landscape of wooded hills dropping steeply toward the St. Lawrence River. Winding roads roll past fieldstone farmhouses and picturesque country churches named for a litany of saints. The perfect spot for contemporary agritourism, Charlevoix has a number of farms that offer visitors an opportunity to see how the lamb and other products are raised.

The area also has been a popular holiday spot since the 1880s when the White Ships of Canada Steamship Lines brought passengers from the Great Lakes to local hotels. The region possesses a unique microclimate, and was designated as a World Biosphere Reserve in 1989.

This 2,400-square-mile area is teeming with specialty agricultural products from cider to free range geese to truly heavenly cheeses. In Quebec it is especially renowned for its "forgotten flavours" based on fresh, local foodstuffs from area producers.