Introduction

The main way to run a microgreen business is by using the grown-to-order (GTO) method. Think of GTO like pre-selling your microgreens. GTO is possible with microgreen farms in a way that is more challenging with conventional agriculture because of how fast microgreens grow. We’ll explain GTO, how it works, and why it works well for microgreen production.

Grown-to-Order (GTO)

Grown-to-order is exactly as it sounds. You grow microgreens according to the orders you receive. The alternative and conventional model for farming is to grow crops, and then hope to sell them after harvesting. GTO is pre-selling microgreens before planting the seeds. Aside from the rare canceled order, you know you have a buyer before incurring the cost of growing trays of microgreens. Why is this model good for everyone? First, you know you have a buyer. You don’t have to spend the money growing microgreens only to maybe or maybe not find a buyer in the end. You know that you’ll be paid for your work if you spend the money. The customer also wins because they know they can get exactly what they want when they want. Assuming you’re a competent grower, microgreen farming is standardized and predictable. For example, you should be able to grow a tray of radish microgreens in seven days and yield 12 ounces of product. Of course, this presumes you’re not brand new to the industry or testing a new crop. Otherwise, you should know the grow time and expected yield for the crops on your menu. With GTO production, the customer can order a certain volume of microgreens for delivery on a specific day. All you have to do is work backward from the delivery day to determine when to plant that crop and how much to plant.

Why GTO Works for Microgreens

GTO is hard to implement in conventional agriculture. Why? Crops grown to maturity take too long. Customers aren’t that patient, nor do they know their needs that far in the future. For example, broccoli microgreens take 10 days to grow. A head of mature broccoli takes 80-100 days to grow. Which broccoli version will customers order in advance, with a good estimate of their needs? The former. Let's use a chef as an example. Assume they can use broccoli microgreens or mature broccoli for a dish on their menu. The chef will analyze their sales data from the past few weeks. They want to know how many customers ordered the broccoli dish. It helps them predict sales in the next few weeks. This informs how much of each ingredient to order. With this data in mind, the chef can contact their suppliers to place orders for each raw ingredient. If you grow mature broccoli, the chef would need to predict his needs for 12 weeks from now. If you grow broccoli microgreens, the chef only needs to predict his needs 2 weeks from now. The latter is much easier and leads to less potential waste. Of course, we live in a globalized world where chefs can buy nearly anything at a moment’s notice. They don’t need to wait for everything to be grown from seed. However, chefs who want to use local microgreens will commit to an order grown just for them, especially since the lead time is so short. The risk they take with using ingredients, like mature broccoli, that aren't GTO, is that the ingredient will be available when they need it. GTO microgreen production effectively guarantees the right quantity at the right time.

If you're a microgreen farmer, we built Microgreen Manager for you. It helps you manage how much to grow and when to plant each variety to meet your orders. Microgreen Manager handles your orders and calculates how many trays to grow, when to plant, and more. Check out the article linked below that explains crop planning and order management, and then start your free trial of Microgreen Manager.

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