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Service

Producer directory development

For the coordinators of regional food networks, producer associations and local food partnerships who need a directory that producers keep current themselves, buyers can search by place and season, and partners can draw data from.

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The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

A regional food network typically knows its producers through a membership spreadsheet, a printed guide that was accurate the month it went to print and a map on the website that someone made in an afternoon three years ago.

  • A buyer for a hotel group wants to know which producers within thirty miles supply soft cheese in October, and the answer involves the coordinator phoning four people.
  • A producer has started selling at a second market and added a certification, and the only place that shows is their own social media.
  • Two cider makers have the same name in different valleys and enquiries go to the wrong one.

Where it gets harder

Enquiries arrive through a general form and are forwarded by hand, so nobody knows which ones were answered.

  • The network's partners, a tourism body and a council, keep asking for a current list and get a spreadsheet export that is wrong by the time it is opened.
  • Featured placement is sold on a handshake and remembered by the coordinator.
  • The directory is the network's most useful asset and it is maintained by the one person who least has time to do it.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom producer directory build normally covers:

  • Producer profiles with products by category Seasons per product, sales channels such as farm gate, markets, box schemes, wholesale and online, and certifications displayed as supplied with the certifying body and date the producer entered
  • Search by product Season, channel and place, with map and radius search from a postcode
  • A claim process Where a producer takes over the profile the network created, confirms a contact and enriches it
  • Buyer enquiries forwarded to the producer With a record of what was sent and whether it was answered
  • Markets and events listed with which producers attend
  • Featured producers and sponsored categories with start and end dates
  • Exports shaped for partner organisations

We follow three real journeys through the directory first: a buyer searching by product and radius, a producer claiming and enriching a listing, and a partner pulling a current export. Each step becomes a named stage in the scope document: seed listing, claim, verify contact, enrich, searched, enquiry forwarded, featured, exported.

Deliberately out of scope

  • Taking orders or payments between buyers and producers, which is a marketplace build
  • Verifying certifications, which stay as records the producer supplies and the network chooses to display
  • Membership subscriptions for the association itself, which belong to a membership platform

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

A county food network with four hundred producers from an old guide wants to seed the directory from that data, invite each producer to claim their profile, show organic and assurance marks exactly as each producer declares them with the body named, forward buyer enquiries with a reply record, and give the tourism board a nightly export of producers who welcome visitors. The claim flow and the partner export are what make it a custom project.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Discovery notes from following a buyer, a producer and a partner through the directory
  • A scope document naming each stage from seeding to export and what is out of scope
  • Design of the search and map, the producer profile, the claim flow and the enquiry record on phone and desktop
  • The build, deployed to your hosting or ours, with the starting dataset imported and de-duplicated
  • Migration of producers, categories and markets from your spreadsheet, guide or old website, where relevant
  • Training for the coordinator and any volunteer editors, with a written guide and a producer-facing help page
  • Handover material and full ownership of the source code and your data

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

  1. Onboarding

    Access to the membership spreadsheet, the old map and guide, the website and the enquiry inbox, with the coordinator as the day-to-day contact.

    Project stage: Onboarding

  2. Planning

    Journey walk-throughs with the coordinator, a producer and a partner contact; the scope document, category list and milestone plan are agreed.

    Project stage: Planning

  3. Design

    Clickable designs of the search with map, a producer profile, the claim steps and the enquiry record, reviewed with producers who will claim their own pages.

    Project stage: Design

  4. Development

    Built in stages: profiles and categories first, then search and map, then claim and verify, then enquiries, markets, featured placement and exports.

    Project stage: Development

  5. Client review

    The network runs a test fortnight with a group of producers: claims, enrichments, searches by radius and season, a forwarded enquiry and a partner export.

    Project stage: Client review

  6. Revisions

    Changes from the review, particularly to categories, certification display and enquiry wording, are made and re-checked against the scope document.

    Project stage: Revisions

  7. Ready for launch

    Full dataset imported and duplicates resolved, claim invitations drafted, redirects from the old map mapped, launch timed before the season guide would normally print.

    Project stage: Ready for launch

  8. Delivered

    The network runs the directory; optional maintenance and hosting continue under their own agreement.

    Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

  • Mapping and geocoding providers for radius search and producer pins
  • Email providers for claim invitations and enquiry forwarding with reply tracking
  • Membership or CRM systems the association already keeps its producers in
  • Card payment providers for featured placement where the network sells it
  • Event and market calendars run by partners
  • Partner data feeds shaped per organisation as an export
  • Mailing list tools for seasonal round-ups to buyers

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A county food network seeding four hundred producers from an old guide

In this scoping scenario, a county food network held four hundred producers in a spreadsheet behind a printed guide. It wanted to seed a directory from that data, invite every producer to claim and enrich their own profile, display organic and assurance marks exactly as each producer declared them with the body named, forward buyer enquiries with a record of whether they were answered, and give the tourism board a nightly export of producers who welcome visitors.

The scope we would propose: an import with duplicate detection by name and postcode, a claim flow that verifies a contact before handing over editing, product and season fields per producer, certifications as supplied with body and date, enquiry forwarding with a reply record visible to the coordinator, and a partner export defined by field list and schedule. The reason this needs a custom build is the claim and export pair: a generic directory script either lets anyone edit anything or makes the coordinator do all of it, and it has no notion of a partner who needs a defined slice of the data every night.

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

  • Size and condition of the starting dataset and how much de-duplication it needs
  • Number of product categories, seasons and certification types to display
  • Map and radius search and the geocoding provider involved
  • Claim and verification flow and whether producers edit their own profiles
  • Enquiry forwarding with reply tracking and any routing rules
  • Featured placement and whether it is paid through the directory
  • Number and shape of partner exports
  • Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

Start from a package

Producer directory package

Producer profiles with products, seasons, sales channels and certifications shown as supplied, map and radius search, claim and verify, buyer enquiry forwarding, market listings, featured placement and partner exports for regional food networks.

Custom build
View the package

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

When is a custom build the right choice rather than the package?

When your dataset, claim process or partner exports break the assumptions of the producer directory package. During discovery we lay your three journeys against the package and say plainly whether configuration covers them or whether, for example, your nightly partner export and duplicate handling need custom work.

Does the directory verify a producer's organic certification?

No. Certifications are records the producer supplies, shown with the certifying body and date exactly as entered, and the network decides whether to display them at all. The directory makes no claim of its own, and we recommend a visible note saying so.

Can we seed the directory before producers claim their profiles?

Yes. Profiles are created from your data as unclaimed, shown with the fields you choose to publish, and each producer receives an invitation to claim. Until claimed, the coordinator edits; after claiming, the producer does, with changes visible to the coordinator.

Can buyers order from producers through the directory?

Not in this scope. The directory forwards enquiries and records replies; orders and payments between buyers and producers are a marketplace build and are scoped separately if the network wants to go that way later.

Who owns the directory afterwards?

The network does. Source code and data are handed over at delivery; hosting and maintenance are optional, separately agreed and movable to another provider.

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