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Software package

Producer directory package

A searchable directory of producers with products by season, sales channels, certifications displayed as supplied, map and radius search, a claim and verify flow, forwarded buyer enquiries, market listings, featured placement and partner exports, ready to configure around your region.

Custom build Concept demo
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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Regional and county food networks, producer associations, local food partnerships, farmers market organisers and destination bodies that want to show who produces what in their area and help buyers find them. It suits a coordinator who wants producers to keep their own profiles current, volunteer editors who tidy categories and approve claims, producers who want a page they control with their markets and seasons on it, buyers such as chefs, retailers and box schemes searching by product and distance, and visitors looking for a farm gate open on Saturday.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to a single producer wanting their own site, who has the farm website package, to platforms that take orders and payments between buyers and producers, which are marketplace builds, and to associations whose main need is member subscriptions and renewals, which belong to a membership platform.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Monday morning.

  1. The coordinator opens the directory dashboard and sees the weekend's activity: three producers claimed their profiles, two of them added products, and one changed her certification record to a new scheme, showing the body and the date exactly as she entered them with the directory's standard note that marks are as supplied.

  2. Eleven enquiries were forwarded over the weekend; eight show a reply from the producer, three do not, and the coordinator sends the gentle reminder the network agreed on.

At ten a chef in the next town searches for soft cheese within twenty miles, in season now, sold wholesale.

  1. The map shows four pins; one is a featured producer whose placement runs until the end of the month, labelled as such.

  2. The chef sends an enquiry from the profile, it is forwarded to the cheesemaker, and both the enquiry and the eventual reply are logged against the profile.

  3. A volunteer editor approves a claim from a cider maker after the contact check matches the number on file, and merges a duplicate profile that had crept in from the old guide.

  4. At six the nightly export runs for the tourism board: producers who welcome visitors, with hours and markets, in the field list the board asked for.

  5. Nobody has phoned anybody to find out who sells what.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow a producer and a buyer through the directory: profiles and categories, search and map, claim and verify, enquiries, markets and events, featured placement and exports. Each module lists what it does; the comparison table shows which variant includes it.

Directory and reviews

  • Producer profilesProfiles listing products by category, seasons, sales channels and photographs.
  • Certifications shown as suppliedCertifications shown with the issuing body and date as the producer supplies them, with a standard note that the directory has not checked them.
  • Claim and verifyProducers claim their own profile and a coordinator approves the claim before it goes live.
  • Starting dataset importImport an existing list of producers, with duplicate detection so the same farm does not appear twice.

Listings and search

  • Search by product, season and radiusBuyers search by product, season and sales channel, then by map or distance from a postcode.
  • Markets and eventsMarkets and events listed with the producers attending each.
  • Saved searches and new-producer alertsBuyers save a search and are alerted when a new producer matches it.

Messaging and notifications

  • Buyer enquiries with reply recordEnquiries forwarded to the right producer, with a record of whether and when they replied.

Integrations

  • Featured producers and sponsored categoriesFeatured placement and sponsored categories for set dates, with payment.
  • Partner exportsData sent to partners on a schedule, limited to the fields you define.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

  • Directory admin

    • Define product categories, seasons, channels and certification types
    • Import and de-duplicate the starting dataset
    • Approve claims, merge duplicates and suspend profiles
    • Configure partner exports and see enquiry reply rates

  • Editor

    • Tidy profiles, categories and market listings
    • Approve or query claims after a contact check
    • Add markets and events and the producers attending

  • Producer

    • Claim and edit their own profile, products, seasons and channels
    • Enter certifications as supplied, with body and date
    • See and reply to enquiries forwarded to them
    • Mark which markets and events they attend

  • Buyer

    • Search by product, season, channel and radius from a postcode
    • Send an enquiry to a producer from their profile
    • Save producers and searches for later

  • Visitor

    • Browse producers on the map and by category
    • See markets and events with who is attending
    • Find farm gates and shops open today

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of the producer directory search showing filters for product, season, channel and radius, four map pins and a featured producer label.

The search as a buyer sees it: soft cheese, in season now, wholesale, within twenty miles of a postcode, four producers on the map with one labelled as featured, and the enquiry button on each result.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

  • Producer profiles with products by category, seasons, sales channels and photos
  • Certifications displayed as supplied with body, date and a standard note
  • Search by product, season and channel with map and radius from a postcode
  • Claim and verify flow with coordinator approval
  • Buyer enquiries forwarded to producers with a reply record
  • Markets and events with attending producers
  • Import of a starting dataset with duplicate detection

Common add-ons

  • Featured producers and sponsored categories with dates and payment
  • Partner exports defined by field list and schedule
  • Saved searches and new-producer alerts for buyers

Needs custom work

  • Integration with a membership or CRM system the association already uses
  • Orders and payments between buyers and producers, scoped as a marketplace
  • Bespoke reporting on enquiry and reply rates beyond the standard dashboard
See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage for you; the choice is made in the proposal and can be changed later. The network owns the code and its data. Producers, products, enquiries, markets and claims can be exported at any time in standard formats, and the package does not lock you to a provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately from the setup. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of enquiry forwarding, geocoding and scheduled exports, backups with restore tests, and a monthly window for small configuration changes such as a new category, a changed season list or an extra export field. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines, or as a subscription that bundles hosting and maintenance where the network prefers one recurring charge. The setup figure depends on the size and condition of the starting dataset, the number of categories and certification types, the mapping provider, the add-ons selected and the hosting choice. Your proposal states each line separately.

Prefer a fully custom build?

Producer directory development

Custom producer directories for regional food networks and producer associations whose spreadsheet of members, printed map and annual guide can no longer answer where to buy what, from whom, this month.

View the service

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How does a producer claim a profile the network created?

They request the claim from the profile, confirm a contact detail that matches what the network holds or is checked by an editor, and are then handed editing rights. The coordinator sees every claim and can approve, query or refuse it.

What exactly does the directory say about certifications?

It shows the scheme, the certifying body and the date exactly as the producer entered them, alongside a standard note that marks are displayed as supplied by the producer. The directory does not verify them and makes no claim of its own.

Can we see whether producers answer their enquiries?

Yes. Each forwarded enquiry is logged against the profile with whether a reply was sent through the directory, and the dashboard shows reply rates so the coordinator can nudge producers who are missing buyers.

How is featured placement handled?

With the add-on, a producer or category can be featured for a date range, labelled as featured wherever it appears, and paid through a card payment provider or recorded as paid offline. Featured results never hide unfeatured producers from a search.

Can partners get a live feed instead of a spreadsheet?

With the exports add-on, each partner gets a defined field list delivered on a schedule or on demand, so a tourism board or council always has the current producers who meet its criteria.

Can buyers order through the directory?

Not in the package. Orders and payments between buyers and producers turn a directory into a marketplace, which is scoped as custom work through the producer directory development service if the network wants it later.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge on this page shows the real state: the package is currently a custom build assembled from our directory, listings, forms and orders modules for each network, and the example on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client system.

Get a quote for Producer directory package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.

Get a quote for this package
Get a quote for this package

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