<b>2011 Profit Quest:</b> Greener media components attract new clientele

Banner Greenhouses is changing its focus and promoting organic products to vegetable producers and the gardening public.Nothing can stir more profits in 2011 like capitalizing on a new product category.

Banner Greenhouses in Nebo, N.C., thinks vegetable starts for both organic field vegetable growers and organic home gardeners will spell success next year. The company is designing a program, from growing media components to fertilizers to pest control, to produce these high-demand green products.

“We’re on a quest to grow products that are greener. The bulk of our products are sold eventually through mass marketers, and they really don’t care much about that,” said owner Jeff Mast. “But we’re starting a new local sales channel. There’s a big opportunity with local organic field vegetable producers and organic gardeners. There’s a real marketplace there.”

The company will grow these vegetable starts with only certified-organic pesticides and OMRI-certified fertilizers.

The company has used parboiled rice hulls (also known as PBH) as a media component for years. Now Banner Greenhouses is using PBH as a real selling point for its product.

“PBH isn’t always cheaper. It’s more expensive than Styrofoam, but Styrofoam isn’t good for the environment,” Mast said. “Perlite is an organic product, but most consumers don’t understand that. But rice hulls are a byproduct, and there’s a real perception of value with those in your media.”

For more: Banner Greenhouses, (828) 659-3335; http://bannergreenhouses.com.

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Specifics:
Name: Banner Greenhouses.
Location: Nebo, N.C.
Founded: 1991.

Greenhouse space: 12 acres.
Crops: Pre-finished annual and vegetable plants sold to other greenhouse growers. Organic starter vegetables also sold to vegetable growers and homeowners, and a new greenhouse vegetable program will provide produce to North Carolina food stores.

Quotable:
“PBH is also compressed, and compared to perlite we can ship it using fewer trucks. We spend less on freight, and that’s also fewer miles the trucks spend on the road. That’s yet another sustainable factor.”
– Jeff Mast