Marketplace Central UP Login – Click Here
What is the U.P. Food Exchange?
The U.P. Food Exchange (UPFE) is a Food Hub championed by the Marquette Food Co-op, Taste the Local Difference, the Western UP Planning & Development Region, MSU Extension and other partners, that coordinates and supports local food activities in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.). UPFE serves as a resource portal for farmers, businesses, and institutions looking to connect with and actively participate in their local food system.
What is the Online Marketplace?
We simplify the sourcing of high-quality, local food products by offering product aggregation, delivery, payment processing, and marketing support. Purchasing products through the UP Food Exchange supports local farmers and invests in the regional economy.
Benefits for Farmers
Farmers are able to market their products to multiple customers through a single online platform which maintains a live inventory at all times. Products are aggregated for pick up at their corresponding Hub Location, so farmers can deliver orders from multiple buyers to one location, with a single invoice.
Benefits for Buyers
Restaurants, hospitals, schools, and other institutions are welcome to use the UPFE Online Marketplace. Buyers can purchase products from multiple farms in a single order, pay for them with a single payment and receive all the products at once as a single order. UPFE streamlines the many processes involved in purchasing local food while maintaining a strong connection to local farmers. UPFE partners with Taste the Local Difference to offer marketing support, as well as provides product updates, and help navigating challenges to getting local food into your business.
Contact Eli Hopp at localfood@marquettefood.coop or 906 225 0671 x 726 for further details about how you can start ordering local food through UPFE’s Online Marketplace.
Interested in Becoming a Seller?
Why Should You Join UPFE’s Online Marketplace?
- Expand your market reach!
- Share your story and photos.
- Access your sales and financial reports.
- Stay organized with email reminders, pick lists, and packing slips.
- Manage inventory, marketing, and sales in one place.
Are You Eligible?
- Eligible Products: fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, plant starts, raw fiber, hay, evergreen trees, fish, maple syrup, herbs, honey. (Alcohol is not currently included in the marketplace.)
- Farmers must disclose their growing practices, though all growing practices are acceptable.
- Producers must grow, gather, or raise what they sell. Resellers are not allowed.
- The physical operation of the farm – its production area and business offices – must be located in the UP.
- For those selling value added products, please contact localfood@marquettefood.coop to discuss your product.
- Non-food items like soap, socks, or mittens are not permitted.
- Sellers are responsible for any licensing, permitting, certifications, and insurance required to sell their products and must provide proof of specific licensing to the UPFE office.
- Sellers are able to sell through the Marketplace and are responsible for arranging transportation of their product(s) to the corresponding Hub Location.
Click on the link below to request an account: Marketplace Login
Interested in Becoming a Buyer?
The U.P Food Exchange invites you to use the Online Marketplace, a website where institutional food purchasers can buy local food directly from farmers on the internet. This website is free, easy to use, and includes a broad range of functions that allow you to spend less time dealing with paperwork and more time working with good food.
Why Should You Join UPFE’s Online Marketplace?
- Stand out!
- Give your food a story.
- Capitalize on the demand for local food.
- Streamline your local food ordering.
Please contact us to discuss what products you are interested in sourcing locally and to request an account. The better we understand your needs, the better we are able to help you meet them. We look forward to hearing from you!
906-225-0671 ext. 726 or localfood@marquettefood.coop
The U.P. Food Exchange is not responsible for product quality and or service provided by an individual farm and cannot guarantee the claims that farms make about their products. Additionally, the U.P. Food Exchange has not verified the ability of buyers to pay for their purchases.