Bad Harvests and Kent Farmer's Markets

With the mixed harvest, the NFU reports (on the 10th of October 2012) that "Wheat yields are down 14.1% on five year average, from 7.8 to 6.7 tonnes per hectare; Winter Barley yields are up 1.6% on five year average, from 6.3 to 6.4 tonnes per hectare; Spring Barley yields are down 7.4% on the five year average, from 5.4 to 5.0 tonnes per hectare and Oilseed Rape yields are up 5.9% on five year average, from 3.4 to 3.6 tonnes per hectare." So be prepared for a change in the supermarkets and especially the farmer's markets. 

Kent’s Farmers’ Markets are feeling the pinch.  Compared to last year, the number of customers is down 10-15%; the average spend per shopper is down from £22 to £17, and four markets have had to close.  While no one pretends that farmers’ markets are critically important to the local agricultural sector, they provide a valuable income to some family farms, and play a wider role in helping to reconnect the public with where their food comes from. This can have knock on effects in the choices they make at the supermarket in terms of buying British.  In addition, in some villages, markets have grown up as replacements for the village shop, and provide a venue for the community to get together.

Do you have ideas for helping markets survive the economic pressures?  What stops you visiting a market?  If you used to go, but don’t any longer, what changed your habits?  Benjamin Dent, chairman of Kent Farmers’ Market Association, would like to hear any comments or suggestions: benjamin.dent@dsl.pipex.com

Learn more about Kent’s markets at : www.kfma.org.uk

 

Farmer's markets - part two

Yesterday, Saturday the seventh of July 2012, I was asked by a cherry farmer's wife to give them a hand at a local farmer's market in Kent. The farmers' market at Penshurst Place has around 20 stalls  selling an assortment of free range meats including vension, locally baked bread, fresh fruit from a local farm shops, barbecued meat, cheeses, chutneys and many other foodstuffs as well as items for the garden that can be planted that day.

For those that don't know Penshurst Place is the family home of the Viscount De L'Isle, which was once owned by Henry VIII, is situated in the West Kent village of Penshurst that lies between two rivers. The village website lists a range of 14 activities and boasts "lovely old timber-framed buildings and converted oast houses" and "traditions such as cricket, still played on one of England's oldest pitches, and the annual village fair are still very much of he community today".

It has been a while since I have been to a farmer's market and I was surprised by the cross-section of the consumers. Both old and young, some with families and push-chairs in tow. I asked, as a way of enticing the customers to stop at our stall of freshly ripe cherries, where they had come from - answers ranged from Penshurst Place itself, the village as well as other local villages in West Kent, the other side of the Dartford Tunnel, Blackheath, even Hong Kong and Australia (although I feel these last two may have been visiting local families).

Penshurst Place Farmers Market has 20 stalls selling free range meats; bread baked locally that morning;  cherries from Sandhurst; fresh soft fruit from Groombridge; soft fruit from Maidstone; a wide range of locally produced produce.

It was good to meet up with Ben Dent who is part of The Kent Farmer's Markets Association, as well as being a member of Eurolink, and meet up with a few of the local producers. Thank you for a good, if tiring, day.

The Shipbourne Pound

Following on from a past posting about Farmers' Markets. Let me ask you a question, how does a farmers' market cope if the community has no cash point and poor signal for the reception of wireless credit and debit card readers? It could be said that some communities would not have held that farmers' market.

Shipbourne, a village in Kent, had different thoughts and they introduced "The Shipbourne Pound" in denominations of £2 and £5 from the idea of the market manager, Bob Taylor.

The idea is that if customers run out of money they can buy the Shipbourne pounds with a debit card from the nearby pub "The Chaser Inn". This reduces the thought of potential customers leaving Shipbourne in order to find money due to the problems listed above. 

The Shipbourne pound depicts the village's church, St. Giles, both in summer and winter as well as Sir Henry Vane - a knighted parliamentarian under Cromwell. The manager of The Chaser Inn, Darren Somerton, talks of the Shipbourne Pound, on the website thisiskent.co.uk, that "We are delighted to work with the market on this new project, offering a new service to the local community, and a further boost to local food producers."

Do you know of any other schemes like this that your local market or farmers' market use to entice customers? I have heard of a scheme in Hawick, Lewes and Totnes, it was even discussed on Ambridge but never implemented. 

Farmers' Markets

As the South of England Agricultural Show gets closer, I aim to add a post a day, please find below a post on how to gain a foothold in the Farmers' Markets. Once again, please feel free to comment.

One of our Eurolink members wrote an article for the Kent Farmers' Markets for potential stallholders. The article warns that the farmers' markets are a competitive environment and that it is worth a visit to a couple of markets to see what is being sold and how you can make your product different from the other products for sale. 

The author, Benjamin Dent, continues to state that customers want value for money,  but they are also interested in the producer and what added value they can provide - be it recipes or contributions to the local community. 

There are, of course, a variety of farmer's markets in Kent (43 at the last count) and are listed here; there are other farmer's markets in Sussex - East and West as well as the whole of England.

The author continues to give advice on how to draw up a business plan with costs, income and cash flow with suggested start-up costs, running costs, income, product price, the commitments as well as what regulations you need to study and pass. As he concludes, Benjamin asks, "Can you remain enthusiastic about telling a shopper about your product for the thirtieth time that morning? Can you encourage people to buy without making them feel uncomfortably pressured? Can you be cheerful at 9am on a cold and wet January morning?"