The National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association ( FARMA ) Annual Conference, held at the Marriott Hotel, Huntingdon, November 11-14, demonstrated yet again that farmers’ markets and farm shops go from strength to strength in meeting the growing demand from consumers wishing to purchase quality, fresh, local produce in a pleasant, and enjoyable, shopping environment.
“In 2008, substantial streams of new revenue will become available to farmers’ markets,” says Gareth Jones of FARMA. Making Local Food Work, part of the Changing Spaces programme, is to be financed through the BIG Lottery fund. The Plunkett Foundation, which has garnered an excellent reputation over many years within the agricultural co-operation sector, will become a working partner with FARMA in this initiative.
“FARMA will work closely with Plunkett to promote farmers’ markets as co-operative enterprises,” explains Jones.
The partnership will identify, benchmark and test new schemes and only then make them available to about 20 farmers’ market groups. Key components such as effective, major training programmes, good governance models and legal structures will also be included in the final package. Worth up to £10 million, the BIG Lottery’s Making Local Food Work portfolio farmers’ markets strands are funded to the tune of £600,000. The budgets are restricted to specific activities and the scheme can only be undertaken in England.
Phase one started in October with a detailed review of how existing co-operatives function. From the model created, four further pilot schemes are to be tested next year. A total of 16 additional farmers’ markets groups will then become operational between 2009 and 2012. The Changing Spaces programme engages communities to improve their local environments whilst supporting the growing and use of local food, and the regeneration of green spaces.
Other potential BIG Lottery funds, which might become available to farmers’ markets, include the Local Community Enterprise (LCE) programme with the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts as lead organisation, in tandem with 16 other organisations. Funding for the LCE project will be £50 million. Around 1,100 projects are expected to benefit from the scheme, which will emphasise local food whilst, again, the LCE will only be available to English farmers’ markets. Smaller grants will be from £2,000-£10,000 (with 0 per cent matched), main grants will range between £10,000 and £300,000 (0-20 per cent matched), and Beacon grants from £300,000-£500,000 (30 per cent matched).
But it is no use having piles of cash to invest, of course, if you do not have the customers to use your facilities. Sound advice for any potential farmers’ market or farm shop owner came from Jonathan Winchester, managing director of Shopper Anonymous, who has tested FARMA member expertise, or lack of it, in arriving incognito to monitor this key management discipline. “Good customer care is integral to running a successful farm shop business,” he says. “It is a proven fact that 70 per cent of shoppers will ditch you and start trading with your competitors as a direct result of poor service received when visiting your farm shop. It can then cost between 70 per cent and 220 per cent more to win new customers when compared with retaining existing shoppers.”
Creating the right first impression is critical. Out-of-hours answer machine messages and welcoming, clean car parks should not be underestimated. “What you say and how you say it are important, as is body language, which is undoubtedly the most important component of all, at 78 per cent,” explains Winchester.
Surveys can give management valuable feedback for changes required and future action. Surveys are written, closely followed by phone research, focus groups, and mystery shopping.
Winchester’s surveys on behalf of FARMA members have identified both strengths and weaknesses. “Just because your shop may be elaborate does not necessarily mean that it offers the best customer service,” he says. “Promoting local food provenance makes sense, as does planned produce education for consumers.” Local farm shop visitors like to be treated as locals, yet too often the comment heard is “I felt like an outsider”.
“All staff need to remember the five capital letters: PMMFS - Please Make Me Feel Special,” says Winchester.
Farmers’ market and farm shop operators and owners who have taken these magic words on board were recipients of FARMA’s annual awards, at a dinner following the conference.
“When we obtained agreement for permanent market signs to be erected at the side of major roads leading in to the town, there was an immediate increase in our Saturday market footfall,” says Claire Gerbrands who manages Stroud Farmers’ Market (SFM) with husband Kardien. SFM won the FARMA Certified Farmers’ Market of the Year 2008 award.
The market opens from 9am to 2pm and organic vegetables are regularly sold out by 11am, despite having four organic grower stalls supported by two vegetable and three orchard fruit/mixed produce stalls. Demand has been so great that farmers have had to considerably increase production, whilst a further two organic growers have now taken stall stands at the market.
Lifton Strawberry Fields Farm Shop, Devon, won FARMA’s Own and Local Retailer 2008 Award. Soft fruit and vegetables grown on the farm and then sold from that same farm’s own shop carry tangible values of traceability and freshness. At least 50 per cent of Lifton Farm Shop’s produce must come from the farm, whilst another 40 per cent can be local and 10 per cent is permitted from elsewhere: citrus and nuts, for example.
Husband-and-wife team Roger and Jo Mounce were responsible for the creation and development of Lifton Strawberry Fields Farm Shop, situated just off the A30 at the gateway to Cornwall with strong emphasis on strawberries grown for PYO, and for the farm shop, and as a key ingredient in Lifton’s highly popular home-made ice cream. Other vegetables grown on the farm include cabbage, cauliflower and curly kale, with other brassicas.
A new orchard, planted in 2002, now grows traditional varieties of apples, pears and plums, not only for the farm shop but also as ingredients for cakes, pies and puddings which are made in the farm-shop bakery. Customers are encouraged to ask about any product on sale in the shop to obtain further information about the supplier. “We know as much about suppliers’ products as if we had grown them ourselves,” says Jo Mounce.
Food miles for many of the fruit and vegetables sold in the shop are prominently displayed on a large 8x4 feet board. For example, tomatoes and new potatoes are sourced through local grower Mike Whitford, who farms half a mile away from the shop.
FARMA Pick Your Own of The Year 2008 winner was Rectory Farm, Oxfordshire, held on a tenancy from New College, Oxford at Stanton St John, north east of the City, just off the A40. Richard and Carley Stanley find that PYO fits in well with other crops such as potatoes and soft fruit grown for local and wholesale markets. Because the land is quite exposed and flat, Richard Stanley and his growing manager Paul Clark use various techniques producing early and late crops of up to nine strawberry varieties and four varieties of raspberries. There are also five hectares of PYO asparagus which was successfully increased to 7ha this year. A sophisticated irrigation system, installed in 1964, and based on reservoirs and a pumping station, was later extended with rain guns and mini-sprinklers. All the PYO crops are trickle irrigated.
A fire in 2004 totally destroyed the original small farm shop but the new, enlarged structure allowed the Stanleys to build and open a new café, which has been successfully run since 2005 by outside caterers Graham and Penny Corbett.
The RSPB has counted 105 different species of bird on the farm, and consequently Rectory Farm is popular with twitchers. With land under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, about 100 different trees are planted each year whilst new hedges create windbreaks, encouraging wildlife. The farm is a member of Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF).
Winner of the FARMA Farm Retailer of The Year 2008 were Kevin and Milly Stokes of Farndon Fields Farm Shop, Market Harborough, Leicestershire. The award recognises outstanding farm retailers who combine vision, a passion for farming and a commitment to retailing in achieving Gold standard. The Farm Shop has been serving the public since 1983 and farming undoubtedly remains at the heart of the shop’s success. A total of 40 varieties of vegetables are grown and sold, including seven types of potato. A restaurant was opened this year under a franchise agreement with a local catering firm, offering a full range of farmhouse-style meals using vegetables from the farm.
“Be honest with your customers, offer them the very best from your farm and source from as many local producers as possible,” says Kevin Stokes.
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