The greatest challenge for farmers is the rise in input costs. Fertilizers and seeds double and tripled in price over the past 4 years. Granted, it has improved to some degree, but the introduction of reduced fertilizer rules is certain to harm yields, and now that the EU has backed down, only British farmers are facing this existential crisis. Our farm is unaffected, because we employ organic methods, and we have not seen any changes to our production regime.
Our first quarter produced results above what they were for the same period in 2023, March prices were somewhat lower than anticipated, but only 50% of our produce production is impacted by the market. The sauces, pie, baby food and other ancillary activities have seen improved profit performance, mainly because of economies of scale and better production methods. All our third-party input costs have risen by more than the average inflation rate, but overall our activities generated far higher return on deployed capital. In 2024, about 60% of our deployed capital is on the farm, the balance is the food transformation business we acquired over the past four years.
For our transformation business, the internet has been a game changer. There is no doubt in either my wife or my mind that what we are now able to do, as a matter of simple business expansion, would have been impossible before 2020. In 2022, we introduced a referral program where our customers would get a discount if they referred our products to others. The baby food in particular was a big beneficiary of this program. We don't give money, we give more products instead. It also allows us to test new lines and get honest feedback.
It was so successful that we did the same thing with our pie business. We found that in the case of our pie business, the repeat business was about 90%, far higher than we anticipated, the meat pies are very expensive, and yet we sell out...
I think that our decision to move up the value chain was critical to our success. Selling beef on the hoof is simply not a viable long-term business. The margins are thin, and a very simple infection can not only wipe out your income, it can kill your farm. Because we own our butchering operations, the price points are completely different.
Today, in April 2024, we slaughter our own production, we also provide slaughter services to our local community. Two of our neighbours have begun selling to consumers and have reported a 100% increase in net revenues. What is important here is that the additional work for the farmers was mostly building a simple website, and shipping the meat to clients, who were eager for high-quality farm fresh meat (they are also organic farmers).
For most things, the problem is bandwidth, access and distribution, once our neighbours saw what we did, often because the wife of the farmer would work some shifts for us, a quiet conversation, a suggested strategy, and in the case of two smaller organic farms a small investment from my wife and I, and they were off to the races. The most surprising aspect is that there is absolutely no governmental help for what we do, nothing at all is available anywhere to support farmers in going up the value chain...
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