Final Performance Report Specialty Crop Block Grant Agreement 12-25-B-0948

With the opening of our new South Carolina State Farmers Market in fall 2010, the ongoing success of the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s Certified SC Grown Program, coupled with the interest in locally grown produce, an additional avenue to bolster local sales for SC producers could be to operate a Certified SC Store. Our project was to study the feasibility of this plan. A Certified SC Store would offer access to an additional market for continued success of Certified SC members. It would offer opportunity for consumers to frequent the State Farmers Market and buy branded Certified SC products in a branded Certified SC marketplace. The application to be registered as a Certified SC member is very good in establishing requirements and standards for the program. Successful establishment of the Certified SC Store would involve cooperation from throughout the state’s agricultural industry. Product quality standards would need to be adhered to for the variety of Certified SC products sold. The diversity of specialty crops grown in our state could be displayed in prominent and proud fashions that would generate interest and increase sales