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Cow-op In The News! Cow-op Looks To Make Big Strides In 2025

Thank you to the Cowichan Valley Citizen writers and staff for highlighting Cow-op’s efforts in the community.

As our non-profit continues to support 90 different Cowichan Valley farms and producers amid tumultuous times, we are holding steady to our mission to facilitate real connections between local farmers and consumers through a co-operative, centralized food hub.

We ended 2024 on a good note, but Cow-op is not out of the woods yet. We continue to look to community donations and business sponsorships to fund essential operations and infrastructure, such as a delivery van, that would grow Cow-op’s impact and ability to deliver island grown and made foods to a larger area of the south island.

The article (below) was written by Robert Barron of Cowichan Valley Citizen, print date January 15, 2025. The original article can be found here: Cow-op Looks To Make Big Strides In 2025.

“Officials from the Cowichan Co-operative Marketplace, also known as Cow-op, say the non-profit organization is anticipating better times after a few trying years.

Speaking at the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s committee of the whole meeting on Dec. 11, a delegation from Cow-op, a farmer and food processor co-operative with an online marketplace, said the organization is poised to make big strides in 2025.

“We’re turning the corner on financial stability and with a few more customers, or just one really supportive partnership, we will have the resources necessary to start looking at broader horizons,” said farmer and Cow-op member Laura Boyd Clowes.

Established in 2014, the Cow-Op.ca online marketplace makes it possible for South Island customers to order food for home delivery from approximately 90 different Cowichan Valley farms and producers that are currently involved with the organization, with the bulk of revenue going straight to farmers’ pockets.
Kyle Campbell, Cow-op’s general manager, said that while the organization paid just $66,760 in sales to local farmers and businesses in 2019, that ballooned to $496,000 in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“During the pandemic restrictions in 2020, Cow-op realized our role as an essential service and quickly adapted to massive sales volumes,” Campbell said. “We recruited an army of volunteers to implement home delivery and expanded staffing, infrastructure and marketing. During this time, the board of directors also voted to drop our sales margin to 15 per cent for farmers to allow them to continue to have a direct sales outlet because the farmers markets were closed.”

But Campbell said Cow-op has faced a number of challenges over the last three years, with the money paid back to farmers and producers dropping approximately 30 per cent to $404,000 in 2023.

On top of that, he said grants and donations to the Cow-op dropped 49 per cent in the same time period.

Campbell said Cow-op reduced its operating expenses and raised its sales margins slightly to help with its financial viability, while ensuring the majority of its income is still going back to farmers and producers.

“Overall, even with the drop in revenues and grants, the business has stabilized and we’re now showing a small net profit for the first time in 2024, as opposed to the net losses in the previous four years,” he said.

“For now, we do still rely on a modest amount of financial support from external sources.”

 Boyd Clowes said Cow-op is struggling with a lack of infrastructure, including its own delivery van, that is limiting the organization’s growth.

The CVRD had financially helped Cow-op and the Cowichan Green Community buy a van a few years ago, which the two organizations currently share.

“We’re looking to grow our impact, expand the network and collaborate with organizations like the South Island FarmHub in Saanich and strengthen the local food system,” she said.

“We’re trying to diversify our revenue, whether it’s through donations and fundraising, or different sales avenues. Having access to a delivery vehicle on more days of the week would allow us to expand our services, as well as tap into different markets. I can’t overstate how important it is for small producers, especially farmers, to have access to a sales market.”

Cowichan Valley Citizen, Robert Barron. 01/15/2025