Farmers' Market - Management

Management

A wide range of organizations initiate, organize, and manage farmers' markets, including farmers' groups, community groups, local governments, etc.

Some markets are strictly managed, with rules for pricing, quality and vendor selection. Others are much more relaxed in their operations and vendor criteria. While the usual emphasis is on locally-grown food products, some farmers markets allow co-ops and purveyors, or allow farmers to purchase some products to resell.

There have been recent reports of fraud and products mislabeled as organic or locally grown when they are not. In some cases, fraudulent farmers markets sell regular grocery store vegetables, passing them off as organic or locally grown, to which are usually sold to unsuspecting tourists.

Some farmers markets have wholesale operations, sometimes limited to specific days or hours. One such wholesale farmers market is the South Carolina State Farmers Market, which is a major supplier of watermelons, cantaloupes, and peaches for produce buyers in the north-eastern US. Farmers markets also may supply buyers from produce stands, restaurants, and garden stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, seedlings and nursery stock, honey, and other agricultural products. Although this is on the decline, in part due to the growth of chain stores that desire national distribution networks and cheap wholesales prices—prices driven down by the low cost of imported produce.