Farmers Tapping Into Specialty Food Markets

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Niche markets are an area of agriculture that, if done right, can have a big payoff. Silver Spring Foods president Eric Rygg says his family saw this firsthand, after taking a chance at an uncommon farming venture in 1929; growing horseradish.

Rygg... "There are spaces, there are bigger gaps in between for a specialty company to move in and solve an unmet need. So there's innovation everywhere and, and data available to us and, maybe some tools even for us, the chemistry of horseradish to be able to bring the zing factor to consumers. So there's, there's always these things that are really interesting and exciting, I think for even to make the horseradish industry exciting. Maybe there's a whole new way to use this raw material that we haven't even thought about yet. And even, in a kind of a recessionary environment, which it feels like we're kind of getting in, you know, that means more people are eating maybe at home instead of going out. We certainly got a big bump after COVID when that happened."

Rygg says they want to emphasize the “good-for-you” elements that come with horseradish.

Rygg... "One of our challenges, I think, is to get that message across to the younger generations. How do we appeal to millennials? And I think we have a chance because, you know, it's got a lot of interest and heat without some of those health issues or the sugar and the fat and the cholesterol that you get in mayonnaise and barbecue sauces and other things."

That’s Eric Rygg, Silver Spring Foods president.