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Farmers' markets: who's fiddling the system?
Local means seasonal, but as plums begin to creep into the summer stock and apples are on offer in May, it seems that not all farmers' markets are playing by the rules
When Britain's first farmers' market opened in Bath in 1997, it was far from just a local event; it was a national occasion. People travelled from all over the country to buy its local artisan produce, excited to be part of a tradition that hadn't been practiced in this country for decades.
Farmers' market revivals were an American idea that took hold there in the early nineties as a way for small producers to ditch the money-grabbing middlemen, and sell direct to the customers. The regional produce and the community atmosphere offered by these markets soon made them an irresistible addition to our weekly household chores.
In just ten years the number of farmers' markets in the UK has already reached 550. Seventeen per cent of households have visited a farmers' market, and it looks like there is still lots of room for growth since nine out of ten people say they would shop at a market if they had one locally.
The downside to this rapid expansion is that a few traders are cashing in on their popularity by selling produce bought from wholesalers. They simply dress it up by sprinkling some farmer's dust (earth), to make it look as if their veg has just been pulled out of the ground.
The issue has been highlighted by the media recently. An article in The Times exposed Isle of Wight Tomatoes, who supply a number of farmers' markets in London. It emerged that they are supplied by a multi-million pound company called Wight Salads, who sell to supermarket chains and produce genetic crossbreeds. Isle of Wight cherry tomatoes were found to be on sale at Tesco for £1.87 for 455g, while the same amount of identical tomatoes could be bought at Pimlico market for almost twice the price, at £3.50.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes told me they 'could not comment' on the matter, but were working to improve their practices.
I also spoke to a market worker at one of London's biggest wholesale markets, The New Covent Garden Market in Vauxhall, who told me that farmers' market stallholders are among their regular customers. Gary Marshall at Bevington Salads said: 'We do get farmers' market stall-owners coming here, mostly to buy English produce, but when it is out of season they have no option but to buy from further afield.'
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