Why are farmers' markets so expensive?

[redcard]

So farmers typically complain that they are the victims of unfair buying practices, they say the supermarkets are making all the profits, yet when they cut out this middleman and sell direct to the consumer, their prices are still bloody high!

Last week I paid £2.50 for a roll n sausage, plus 50p for some fried onions. A 500ml tub of soup was £3.50, £2.00 for a loaf of ciabatta. A 500ml tub of ice cream was a fiver!

Now I understand there's additional costs involved in getting a market stall up and running, but surely if they want to get the public on-side they should be selling their product at fairer prices? They must still be able to break-even on £1 for a tub of soup if the supermarket aren't taking their share of the profits?

Right?

 

[gbb]

Think about it...WTF has fried onions, a chiabata, soup and sausage rolls got to do with farmers ?????

Nothing....probably not even farmers, makes a mockery of it all.

 

[redcard]

Think about it...WTF has fried onions, a chiabata, soup and sausage rolls got to do with farmers ?????

Nothing....probably not even farmers, makes a mockery of it all.

I'm no agricultural expert but I believe vegetables, meat, wheat and dairy products all come from farms.

The fact that the big sign said 'Farmers Market' just nails it on the head for me.

 

[slowmotion]

The prices are set at what the market will bear. People who visit farmers' markets tend to be quite well off, so the prices are high.

My guess.

 

[Peteaud]

Shiney new tractors are damn expensive youknow.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Think about it...WTF has fried onions, a chiabata, soup and sausage rolls got to do with farmers ?????

Nothing....probably not even farmers, makes a mockery of it all.

So true: a real farmers produce is eggs with chicken feathers still attached

 

[subaqua]

costs time and money to put the dirt back on the carrots


View: http://youtu.be/afY4v0y4fL4

 

[toroddf]

Nothing....probably not even farmers, makes a mockery of it all.

WHAT ???? You are not seriously telling me that the fried cod I bought from Farmfoods was not produced on a hill farm in Wales ?

The whole farmers markets around these islands started out as some farmers wanting to talk directly to the consumers & selling their produces directly to them, but has developed into everything they despised when they started out some decades ago. Now, it is expensive food sold by mostly people who has nothing to do with the farms.

 

[Davidc]

I was at one earlier today.

Didn't buy much. Srawberries fresh picked yesterday. 10% less than Sainsburys (50p less on £5.00 at Sainsbury's). Massively better quality, but that comes from freshness. 12 eggs, again 50p less than S'burys free range and organic with it.

There's no take-away food there. It would have to be made from food produced by the seller to be allowed at the market.

How good and how expensive your local farmers' market is will depend on the stallholders, and what's allowed and on what conditions is up to the organisers. There are good and bad. Most in this area are good, and the sellers price to compete with supermarkets. I'm not a farmer or smallholder, but know a number of people who are, and who sell at farmers and conventional markets. I'm told that if they knock 10% off supermarket prices they typically make between 5 and 10 times the profit they do when selling to the supermarkets.

 

[redcard]

The prices are set at what the market will bear. People who visit farmers' markets tend to be quite well off, so the prices are high.

My guess.

Yeah, but this isn't a market in a middle-class English village. This is a town in deepest, darkest Scotland, where 25% of the population are unemployed and another 25% look like they are.

 

[MattHB]

So true: a real farmers produce is eggs with chicken feathers still attached

I've seen them sticking them onto tesco's value!

Shiney new tractors are damn expensive youknow.

Don't forget about new Mercedes and combine harvesters! Thats where they learn to drive Mercedes you know, by practicing in their combines.. It's why they all seem to be able to only give me 5/8ths of an inch passing room.

 

[Bromptonaut]

Local experience is that steak, sausages and assorted less prestigious cuts of pork or lamb are a wee bit more pricey than Tesco but much better for flavour and quality. The sort of markets that do rolls and sandwiches like that @ UCL every Thursday are a different animal.

 

[redcard]

Local experience is that steak, sausages and assorted less prestigious cuts of pork or lamb are a wee bit more pricey than Tesco but much better for flavour and quality. The sort of markets that do rolls and sandwiches like that @ UCL every Thursday are a different animal.

It was just one stall doing the burgers, they were also selling various other cuts of fresh meat as well. I guess they were using the BBQ to draw in punters.

 

[Davidc]

Yeah, but this isn't a market in a middle-class English village. This is a town in deepest, darkest Scotland, where 25% of the population are unemployed and another 25% look like they are.

Farmers and smallholders who sell at these markets will sell at whatever price they can. Same as any business, including tescos.

The one I referred to above caters mainly for elderly local residents who are very price sensitive and have time to shop around. result - pricing to compete with Tesco. If your farmers can sell to the well heeled at a higher price they will.

If you have one why not try a general street market? You might find the produce is as good and cheaper. I can't believe Scotland is very different from Southern England in that respect.

 

[toroddf]

Yeah, but this isn't a market in a middle-class English village. This is a town in deepest, darkest Scotland, where 25% of the population are unemployed and another 25% look like they are.

You are off course referring to the same town who also sometimes arrange German markets. I have never really understood the link between that town and Bavaria. Neither has the local German community either.

Returning to the farmer's market in that town, I have to say that farmer's market is pretty sub standard (Read: rubbish) compared to other farmer's markets. And both the prices and the products is way off. Scented soaps (which I mistook for cheese, btw) sold for a hugely inflated prices and some piri-piri salmons priced 3 x more than the fish monger around the corner. There are better farmers markets than this roadblock.