"The adoption model gives peace of mind; you know part of your harvest is sold before the season even starts, and you know the price in advance."
Published June 2026
Farmer Survey 2025
At CrowdFarming, our mission goes far beyond offering nutritious organic food to European consumers; because at the end of the day the reality is that we work for farmers. Our goal is to solve the systemic problems they face in a direct sales model so they can focus on what really matters: farming. As our farmers face the rising pressures of inflation, unpredictable weather, global geo-politcal events, and other challenges, it’s essential we ask the right questions to keep up and offer them the right kind of support.
That’s what our annual farmer survey is for. It’s our chance to ask them all the tough questions. But this isn’t interesting only for us. Understanding farmers’ needs and the challenges they face is part of being a conscious citizen and is essential to continue building a better food system for all. So here’s the letter we sent them with the raw results from the survey. Some things make us feel proud, some things make us feel like we’re not doing enough. All out in the open, because we believe it’s always better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing at all.
Dear Farmers,
A few months ago, we asked you to share your experiences with CrowdFarming in our annual survey. We know your time is precious, days in the fields are long, and filling out forms is the last thing you want to do at the end of a day.
That’s why we want to say a massive thank you to everyone who made the effort to respond. You’ve made it clear that the current survey takes up too much time, so our first commitment is to ensure that giving feedback is a much quicker and simpler process in the future. Your voice is our primary compass for improvement.
After analysing this year’s responses, we can see exactly what’s working, but more importantly, where we’re letting you down and what you need from us.
1. What’s working: Stability in uncertain times
In a year marked by inflation and extreme weather, we’re relieved to see that the core of our model continues to provide value:
- Income and pricing: 59% of respondents have seen an increase in income, with the majority attributing this growth to CrowdFarming.
- Value for money: 58.4% prefer our price-to-service ratio over other alternatives.
- Stability: Crucially, not a single farmer felt that prices were more unstable with us compared to other channels this year.
As one colleague shared:
2. Your headaches (and our action plan)
You spoke very honestly about the things that drain your time, profitability, and energy. We’ve taken note and are working on concrete solutions for your three main concerns:
Bureaucracy and payment transparency
You’ve told us that making sense of invoices and payout cycles feels like a balancing act. To lift this administrative burden, we are implementing several changes this year:
- Simplified Payouts: A new, streamlined scheme to ensure invoicing is no longer a puzzle and payments are clear at a glance.
- New Farmer Zone with Total Traceability: No more blind spots. You’ll have full visibility of your produce from the moment it leaves the farm, whether it’s headed to a logistics centre (CrowdLog) or straight to a CrowdFarmer’s home.
- AgriFactu Integration: To help with external red tape, we’ve integrated AgriFactu to simplify uploading payouts to the “One-Stop Shop” (OSS) scheme and meet electronic invoicing requirements without extra effort.
Logistics issues
Delays in collection and poor communication with couriers remain a critical pain point affecting your planning and product freshness. We are making a significant operational leap:
- Greater control with CrowdSender: We’ve evolved CrowSender into a Warehouse Management System (WMS). It’s already live in our Museros warehouse and two external sites, giving us much tighter control over traceability.
- Better courier options: we’re continuing to bring on new couriers to ensure better service and developing new CrowdSender features to improve communication and avoid missed handovers.
- Customer-side redesign: We’re refreshing the customer order area to make their experience clearer, which will directly reduce the number of queries and frustrations that occasionally get passed on to you.
Visibility for everyone
Smaller or newer producers often feel it’s hard to stand out next to larger projects. We’re attacking this from two angles:
- A fairer, easier-to-navigate website: Rather than one giant shop window, we’re launching search improvements and detailed categories/sub-categories with more filters. This means customers find exactly what they want faster, and your projects compete in smaller, fairer spaces.
- Social media and blog (less volume, more stories): We want to put a face to your work and highlight your stories, not just your output. We encourage you to send us your news, the challenges you face in the field, or even your recipes, so we can share them on social media and on the blog. You can email us at any time at communication@crowdfarming.com or fill in this form. We’ll even come and visit you on your farm to find out more and create exclusive content with you!
3. Extreme weather & Regenerative Agriculture: Your needs
The pressure is high: nearly 80% of you cited unpredictable weather (extreme droughts, heatwaves, flash floods) as the biggest threat to your farm, while 68% have seen business costs rise.
In response, an impressive 95% of you are already using regenerative practices as a shield to make your soil more resilient. However, you’ve been clear that the transition isn’t easy, citing three main barriers:
- Lack of financial support for initial investment (43%).
- The high cost of time and labour (42%).
- The need for more training and technical knowledge (33%).
How we’re going to help:
- “1% for the soil” Regenerative Funds: We’ve set aside funds from our sales to finance training and lab analysis for producers in our Regenerative Agriculture Programme. You’ll also get access to the “Soil Association Exchange” digital tool to guide your implementation and track progress. To sign up, contact your agronomist or email farmers@crowdfarming.com.
- Financial & Insurance Agreements: We know transitioning to organic and regenerative carries financial risks. We are currently in talks with banks and insurers via Farmeneur to secure exclusive products (with better rates and coverage) specifically for the CrowdFarming network.
We remain committed to being your best ally in direct sales. Thank you again for trusting this model and for your tireless work feeding Europe.
Warm regards,
The CrowdFarming Team
Written by Cristina Domecq
Cristina Domecq is the Head of Impact at CrowdFarming. She operates where the boardroom, the field, and social conversations converge, convinced that the clues to fixing the food system are revealed in that intersection. Her goal is to achieve a behaviour change that sticks—a mission that only works if both farmers and consumers are truly on board.
Comments
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by Lisa T on May 2026
If you’ve new couriers, I’ll order again. That was the only reason I stopped using Crowdfarming. I love the idea of supporting farmers directly. Woohoo I’m off to to lots of planning for when I get paid now!