Setting Up a Farmers' Market

This Briefing Note and Attachments have been developed by KFMA to give you an idea of what is required to set up a Farmers' Market in terms of good practice and 'Unique Selling Points' and how to make a successful start and maintain quality contribution to your local community.

We would strongly recommend that you approach KFMA and the Manager of a Farmer's Market close to you to discuss your ideas and plans in order to help move the concept to reality.We would be very happy to help and share our experiences.

Just like a Manager of any large store, your job is to attract sufficient number of shoppers. However, it is important to realise from the outset that your stallholders are in business, their presence is determined by their economic viability. Consequently the market needs to be set up and run in a business-like fashion from the outset.

All successful businesses start from a PLAN and a Farmers' Market is no exception. The following brief is designed to help you create such a Plan.

Benefits for the community:
Firstly, we would encourage you to adopt a set of guiding principles that you can publicise. This should define why you think that the Market will bring benefits for your shopping community. Examples are :
1. The creation of a hub in your community. A place for shoppers to meet and buy quality, local food at fair prices.

2. The creation of a low cost retail outlet, enabling producers to obtain a regular cash flow and a fair return for their labour through direct selling and the elimination of middlemen.

3. Ensuring direct contact and feedback between customer and producer, so you can be sure as to how produce is grown.(Food always tastes better when you know where it comes from ! )

4. Help improve the environment by the reduction of food miles (and associated vehicle pollution, noise and fossil fuel) and minimal packaging, which also reduces production costs.

5. Encourage healthy eating through the availability of fresh, in season, high quality produce at realistic prices and use of more environmentally friendly production practices, such as organic or pesticide free fruit and vegetables, and rearing of animals which respects their welfare.

6. Encourage local economic development and rural employment by supporting small business and thus keep money within the local community.

7. Encourage safe, hygienic and sustainable production methods, including use of traditional breeds and varieties which help maintain genetic diversity. Furthermore the rearing, slaughtering and selling animals locally helps prevent the spread of diseases.

A Farmers' Market is a food handling retail outlet, consequently you and your stallholders must be aware of and conform to certain regulations and standards. The market will be reviewed by Local Authority inspectors to ensure the minimum standards are adhered to, if not the market could be forced to close. Police and Highways should be informed if there will be any impact on local traffic.

All stallholders and the market must have sufficient Public and Product Liability Insurance. You must ensure that Stallholders comply with the requisite Food Safety and Trading Standards required by your local council. Consequently you should ensure that at least one person in the Organisation should have sufficient knowledge in this area by attending a Food Hygiene course (often run by local councils) including refresher courses to keep up to date. It is also recommended that you should have someone attend a First Aid course. Outdoor electrics must be subject to an inspection and accord to the latest SEN practices. As your market is open to the general public it is worthwhile undertaking a general Risk Assessment in order to identify and eliminate potential hazards.

The National Farmers' Retail and Markets Association (FARMA, www.farma.org.uk) have developed a set of criteria for accrediting farmers' markets. While you are not obliged to meet these, it is important that you fulfil shoppers' expectations about what they will find at your farmers' market, in particular about selling predominantly local and traceable food, and having knowledgeable stallholders. Accordingly, membership of KFMA is only open to markets which fulfil these requirements.

Your stallholders must be aware of legal requirements and your own internal rules. The Market Manager is responsible to ensure that stallholders not only have the requisite Local and National certificates and licences and insurance but that they meet the Standards that you have laid down for your market's operations.

See the general 'Market Standards' document, Stallholder Application Form' and Food Safety leaflet for Farmers' Market Traders for more detail. These forms may be used as templates and modified to suit your own needs

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THE MARKET PLAN

The Market plan doesn't need to be a lengthy document. It should be a 'living-document' and subject to change as and when you think it appropriate. It could also become the basic document for fund raising (e.g. for Local Authority grants)

Questions to be answered

1. What are the key objectives of the Market ? for example, to provide an outlet for local food producers; to bring the local community together; to create an opportunity for the community to buy good quality fresh food at reasonable prices; to provide income for other local projects (e.g. a Village Hall); to supplement the local tourist strategy etc.

2. How will the Market be constituted? It could be set up as a Registered Charity, a Limited Company, a Co-operative or a Community Interest Company etc. There is considerable variety in Kent as to how markets are constituted, but we would suggest that you agree on what works best for you and start off simply, which could be as straightforward as a sub-committee of the Parish Council.

3. What are the Market running costs? how much will you spend on advertising, signage, space rental, power, heating, insurance etc. Who provides tables, gazebos or tents (i.e. if left to individual stallholders, it will bring a lack of uniformity and presentational quality, though it may add character. Providing stalls yourself adds significantly to start up costs and you will need to arrange to have them put up and down for each market).

4. How you intend to finance the Market? initially and in the long term. This could be from fundraising, endowments, Local Authority (and other public body) grants. Your plan will be the ideal vehicle to help you prove how serious you are and how you expect the market to operate

5. How the Market will be operated?; this section will cover the opening times, location, frequency, numbers and types and variety of stallholders, standards for stallholders/producers etc. We would recommend that you set up a separate Bank Account for the market. You will require Application forms, guidance for stallholders etc (see Attachments). Volunteers are going to be needed to help to put out the signs, setting up/taking down the market, cleaning up, collecting the fees, acting as treasurer, assisting with stallholder arbitration and liaison etc. It is imperative to have sufficient volunteers to help throughout the year (the frequency and timing of the market could be defined by the number of volunteers and the time they are willing to offer).

6. How the Market will be managed?, A formal Management Committee should be set up and should meet regularly to oversee market operations, promotional activities etc. A Market Managers should be appointed who is responsible to ensure the market runs successfully. You should consider whether you want to have a part-time paid market manager many successful markets do and factor that into your income/expenditure calculations Others may be responsible for liaison with official bodies such as Hygiene, Highways and the Accounts for the financial operation of the market.

7. How to develop the customer base? Why should customers change their present shopping habits and come to the market ? Where will they come from the immediate vicinity or within say, ten miles ? This is dependent to a certain extent on having the right mix of stallholders (e.g. quality meat, bread, vegetables and fish plus other interesting products). Other aspects to consider include whether you anticipate any major difference between the number of customers attracted in summer and winter. One key criteria for successful markets is good parking facilities and refreshments near by. A conveniently located cash machine is also very useful.

8. How to find stallholders ?. Both quality and variety is all important. All markets should have a core of basic suppliers, (i.e. meat, bread, fish and vegetables), augmented by more interesting stalls such as preserves, cakes, chocolates, pies, dairy, eggs, etc. Depending on size and demand you could have two of some stalls, e.g. meat, where one stallholder might be specialising in beef and another in game or pork and lamb. Supplementary and seasonal stallholders can also be added on a regular basis, e.g. flowers, ice-cream, hot soups, herbs, plants, ready meals etc. KFMA maintain a stallholder database which may help you recruit Stallholders. (If you visit other Markets looking for potential stallholders it is recommended you inform the Market Manager first)

9. How many Craft type stalls ? to conform to FARMA's definition of a 'Farmers' Market' the number should be limited to ten percent of the overall annual number of stalls. In practice, we find that any more and the market loses its character. However, you may actively plan additional 'visitor stalls' to match events, such as Mothers' Day, Christmas etc. You need to be guided by your local circumstances and ambitions for the market, which may change over time.

10. Why a 'Stallholder contract' ? Stallholders come to your market on your terms so it is essential to have standards and clear expectations of each other. A good quality application form is essential alongside your standards. This is the 'contract' between the Market and stallholders. (See Attached example).

Note:- many stallholders attend multiple markets and have well developed views on how markets should be run and their opinions and experiences provide a good source of knowledge which should be taken into consideration. Local producer knowledge and cross-referencing with other Market managers and the KFMA stallholder database will help you develop a recruitment strategy that then needs to be implemented.

11. What Standards ?You will need to set the standards that you expect stallholders to comply with, together with any checking process that you may wish to put in place and this needs to be communicated with them. These standards should include definitions of 'locally produced', 'fresh', 'direct from the producer' etc. The essence is about how best to build upon the ethos of a sustainable local economy. You may have to accept a pragmatic degree of 'hybrid' stallholders to meet local demand. (Finding fresh lemons in Kent is still not possible, but walnuts and olives are becoming more likely ! )

12. How much to charge ? The fee rates for stallholders vary throughout Kent, ranging from £5 to £30 and are dependent upon the costs of running the market, future prospects for the market and what the stallholder believes is economically viable. We would recommend flat fees, rather than anything related to turnover or percentages etc. Openness and transparency is important and it is not unusual to consider negotiating putting up fees after a reasonable period of time, but this event should not come as a surprise to stallholders!

13. How to promote the market ? The first priority is to define what you would like to achieve by the end of the first year. This relates to three distinct interlocking dimensions, i.e what you are selling, to whom are you selling, and how are you going to get customers to come to the market - :
o What are you selling. This is focussed around the number and type of stalls and the product range they will be selling, with an estimate of an average spend rate per shopper.
o The volume of shoppers you think the market can cope with, what catchment areas you expect to get them from and ideally an estimate of the average disposable income levels.
o What will the media and the message be; this will reflect on local circumstances and can change over time. You must commit to relentless promotion of the market. It is an ongoing task, and one of your most important ongoing functions. If it was not essential, the supermarkets would not bother to constantly advertise on TV. You are in a competitive environment just as much as they are. What seems to work as a form of primary promotion is a combination of: well-placed and clear road-signs; advertisements and/or Press Releases in the local newspapers and free broadsheets; notices in public areas and in local businesses plus brochures, leaflets and business cards. For secondary promotion, a website is useful, but the impact of this can be variable (especially persuading potential customers to find it !). The KFMA Web site is a simple and effective method to start with and then you can link to your own site at a later date.

• A launch event is an excellent way of creating initial interest in a new market.
  
  

Writing the Plan

It is recommended that you write a more detailed Marketing Plan covering the next two years and this will need to build upon current and planned initiatives, for example:

• Undertaking a more detailed analysis of your target marketing areas. This will enable you to plan for an effective and sustainable promotional campaign which in turn will help underpin any growth forecasts. This ought to focus on the socio-demographic make up and income levels of the area, their current shopping habits, and if possible, a comparison with other markets experiences in Kent and national trends. Questionnaires can be developed to directly and indirectly involve shoppers and potential shoppers at the market to create solid evidence for what works and how things might be improved over time. KFMA has experience in this area.
• In parallel with this, you can also link with existing or planned local initiatives like tourism growth and supporting the local shopping experience.
• Additionally, new and special events can be developed, for example, 'specials' like Pancake days, Easter Days, Apple Bobbing, Bonfire Night and Christmas Market activities etc.
• Increased direct advertising can also be undertaken, for example, using local radio interviews immediately before the next market to reach a wider audience.
• Increased indirect advertising can also be considered to enhance visibility e.g. sponsorship with local business's such as Estate Agents, pub/restaurant chains, etc. Writing a monthly articles for local magazines describing what is in season, stallholder profiles, recipes
• Increased community engagement through closer working with local groups like the schools and parish and church councils.
  
  

Other Items for Consideration

• Venue
• Planning Permission: You will need to contact your local Council for advice on whether Planning permission will be needed to run the event. Initially write in with details giving as much information as possible with regard to your event. If Planning is required an application form will be sent out which then needs to be filled in and submitted for review. You need to allow plenty of time for this before your first market.
  
  
• Licensing: If you are planning to have any street trading or road closures you will need to apply for license. Additionally, if alcohol is being sold to the public a separate license will be needed.
  
  
• Health and Safety: Your local Council's Environment and Health Services will give advice on health and safety issues to potential stall holders; this should be discussed at an early stage.
  
  
• Food and Safety: The Council's Food and Safety Division will give advice as to stallholder legal requirements. They will visit the Market occasionally to check compliance e.g. labelling of produce, cleanliness etc.
  
  
• Insurance: You need to ensure that each trader has adequate Public Liability insurance and that the grounds or building you hold the market in are adequately covered. You may wish to refer to your insurance broker for advice on this or for example, contact the NFU Mutual, or National Market Traders Federation for further information.
  
  
• Parking: This is vital. Not only must there be adequate parking but ease of parking together with continuous in/out movement and possible entrance/exit congestion must be taken into account. You may need a full time parking attendant to keep the traffic moving.
  
  
• Electricity: - This will be required for refrigeration. All external connections must be approved. Stallholders may bring their own generators so the noise factor is important.
  
  
• Grants:- In order to get the market off the ground there considerable expenses will be incurred e.g. stall equipment, advertising boards and advertising in local papers etc, brochures, hire of venue, telephone, printing etc etc. Stall fee income will eventually come in but you will need to expend monet up front. Use your costed Plan as a way to determine costs and initially approach your local Council for a grant to help cover some of these fees. Otherwise we suggest you discuss grants with KMFA who may be able to find some other means of finance.

: Research potential sites carefully. Is an indoor/outdoor or both style venue more appropriate? Factors that need to be taken into consideration include weather restrictions, time of year, site access, public transport, number of traders, parking facilities and traffic congestion.