Cow-op.ca / Cowichan Valley Co-operative Marketplace

Cow-op.ca is the Cowichan Region’s co-operative food hub solution for local food aggregation and distribution. Cow-op.ca connects farmers and food processors to local consumers with a focus on quality, freshness, efficiency, profitability and sustainability.

Cowichan Valley Co-operative Marketplace’s (CVCM) mission is to facilitate real connections between local farmers and consumers through a co-operative, centralized food hub. CVCM aims to provide a predictable and viable market solution for our farmers and food processors, while giving consumers convenient access to the freshest, highest quality, and most sustainably produced local foods available. With increasing demand for quality local foods, CVCM contributes to a strong local economy and increased farm viability on Vancouver Island. The result is healthier people and greater food security in our region.

Our main initiative is our online farmers’ market, Cow-op.ca. Producers manager their own listings on a weekly basis and customers place their orders directly to the the producers. Cow-op aggregates, organizes and facilitates pickups or home deliveries of customers orders. We are currently launching a wholesale avenue to our business where local chefs and food processors can place bulk orders from our Valley’s producers all in one place. Many of our value added producers are now purchasing ingredients through the cow-op, creating their product and then listing those value added products on the cow-op.

We aim to create a consistent sales avenue resulting in economic viability for local, sustainable and ethically focused farmers and food processors. Our intended impact is to reduce the workload of local producers by collectively marketing, handling customer relations and getting vendors products into the homes, kitchens and stores of our bioregion. We want to put more money into the pockets of local producers while reducing their workload. In the long-term we hope to contribute to a higher percentage of food produced and consumed on Vancouver Island.