Green Horizons

Missouri Exchange is a free Web site that broadens marketing opportunities for Missouri producers who specialize in niche market products and allows buyers to find agricultural products at the click of a mouse. Ultimately, the site aims to increase the market for Missouri alternative products and native plant materials.

Producers who list merchandise on the Web site have 24-hour access to potential buyers throughout the state, the country and even around the world. The site showcases Missouri’s diverse agricultural products, links sellers to the market, helps source hard to find products and educates consumers and producers. Users can buy and sell timber, nuts, fruits, botanicals, native plants, mushrooms and other agricultural products.

The site lets people and businesses “buy local,” which helps the environment and the economy. For sellers, the site is an additional and easy way to market products – for free. The site is also a source of critical market and product information for buyers and sellers alike.

According to Web site administrator Ina Cernusca, a research associate and marketing specialist with the Center for Agroforestry, Missouri Exchange has been successful so far. The site has generated 268 members in about eight months; the number of members increases every day. Missouri Exchange has received up to 22,000 hits per month and attracts visitors from all over the world.

Members have the opportunity to create a directory page or post specific offers to sell or requests to buy. Buyers and sellers have responded favorably to the site.

“That it even exists is great! The whole concept,” said one seller.

“I like the idea of a locally grown suppliers concept and a place to advertise buying,” said a buyer on the site.

The user-friendly Web site was also the subject of a recent workshop at the University of Missouri, bringing together buyers and sellers. The MU Center for Agroforestry sponsored The Missouri Exchange workshop, held July 19 at Memorial Union on the MU campus. The event featured information on selling fresh and niche agricultural products, a Web site tutorial, local food and agricultural product samples, and networking among attendees and speakers.

The Missouri Exchange workshop included knowledgeable speakers who discussed opportunities for marketing niche and fresh agricultural products to restaurants, marketing of alternative products, native plants and the GrowNative! program, and the rise of the growing local food movement in the United States. Participants and speakers also exhibited their services and products. A luncheon was made from ingredients brought in from area farms before preparation by University of Missouri chefs.

The workshop will be repeated to provide more people the opportunity to get in-depth information about the Web site and its objectives, Cernusca said.

Visit the Missouri Exchange Web site at http://www.missouriexchange.com/ For more information about the site, contact Ina Cernusca at (573) 882-4848 or cernuscam@missouri.edu.