A recent survey of 17 Irish Farmer Markets revealed that stallholders are extremely positive regarding the long term viability of the markets.
Calor Griffin of Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre, presented the finding of the survey at the Rural Tourism & Artisan Food Conference which was held in Athlone on the 14th of October.
Some of the conclusions drawn from the survey include:
- Stallholders identified the need for continued support from Local Authorities
- Businesses continue to need advice and training in the areas of food safety, legislation and process technology
- Businesses consider non-technical areas extremely important for them:
- Identification of market potential
- Supply chain management
- Financial management
- Stakeholder agencies with responsibilities in the above areas should continue to work together to provide an integrated package of supports
- Respondents need direction in sales/selling techniques at set up and thereafter
- Speciality producers should consider:
- Using smaller markets to hone sales skills/perfect product range
- Identifying gaps in the product range in the markets they hope to target
One of the interesting things the survey highlighted was that although the level of support given to businesses by stakeholder agencies was low, the main source of support was from LEADER (which is funded through the Rural Development Programme).
The presentations includes inforamtion on:
- General product & stall information
- Stallholder profile
- Sales channels/routes to market
- Supports given to businesses by stakeholder agencies
- Areas of difficulties for stallholders
- Advice/training needs identified
- Comments from stallholders
The presentation can be downloaded here [pdf].
The full report Teagasc Farmer’s Market Survey (669KB PDF Format).
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