Farmers' market hurting vendors

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

The double banners at the entrance to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries' Hope Road, St Andrew, offices are designed to make produce shoppers salivate. Not only do they hold the promise of an array of fruit and vegetables at the next farmers' market on Wednesday, May 25, but there is also the pledge of "rock-bottom prices".

However, less than a mile away, vendors at Papine Market are not pleased about the upcoming event, which is not the first one in the area which they would know their loyal clientele is familiar with.

In fact, among the vendors' complaints is the frequency of these "farmers' markets", the last being in April with another scheduled for this month end.

Icilda Williams says she has been selling at Papine Market since the 1970s and the farmers' market "affect us bad bad. The majority of the people go down there go buy and we hardly get any sale up here".

The farmers' markets were started in January to provide an outlet for the glut of some produce on the market, the one-day outlets for farmers initially staged in St Ann, St Mary, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, Clarendon and Manchester. A farmers' market was held on the ministry's Hope Road grounds on March 4.

Williams says she did not go to the farmers' market to compare prices to Coronation Market, where she normally buys produce to resell in Papine. However, she said: "My daughter tell me it woulda better if me go down there. But I go Curry. I have my regular customer down there," she said.

Farm-gate prices

Williams is one of two intermediaries between the farmer and the final customer. Both herself and the vendors in Coronation who buy produce at farm-gate prices add their margins to turn a profit. Still, Williams says she works with very slim margins. She buys ripe plantains at Coronation Market for about $600 a dozen, reselling individual fingers for $50 and $60 each. Callaloo costs her $350 for a dozen bundles, and she resells for $50 each.

"You have to say is only $10 I get off a bundle," Williams said.

There are her transportation costs to consider: $200 for a cart from Coronation to the bus stop, and from there, $250 if she has to take a taxi. However, the senior citizen pays $20 if she catches a JUTC bus.

She was not selling on the day the last farmers' market was held at the Ministry of Agriculture, but Williams says her colleagues reported that sales were slow but not terrible. While she expects very slow business on Wednesday, May 25, Williams says she still has to come out.

Another lady said she had been selling at Papine Market for a "long, long time" and that she had not been "down there" to the farmers' market. On the day, she said: "It affect we. The market slow. The majority people go down there."

She also buys produce at 'Curry' and says in slow periods, "sometime you have to do a little higglering so you can get something".

Wednesday, May 25, is guaranteed to be a slow day, but both women will press on and put out their produce. "Mi cyaa do anyting else. The Lord will provide," Williams said.

• Outlet for excess produce

The St Andrew round of farmers' markets was implemented specifically to provide an outlet for excess produce. When they were started in St Ann, St Mary, St Catherine, St Elizabeth, Clarendon, and Manchester in January, estimated total sales were $5 million and $7 million, with more than 8,000 persons being served by 108 farmers.

At the time, Minister of Agriculture Christopher Tufton said there was a glut in a number of crops, including tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and carrots, that would have lasted another three weeks.

On March 4, it was reported that 20 registered farmers from St Ann and St Mary offloaded 25,000 pounds of excess produce at the farmers' market held at the All-Island Banana Growers' Association in Trinity, Port Maria, St Mary. However, at the St Andrew version of the market on the same day at the Ministry of Agriculture's Hope Road, St Andrew, offices, there were complaints about high prices.

Glut

However, Dr Marc Panton, chief technical director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, said: "I want us to be prepared that some of the prices may seem a little high, but we also have to understand that these are not items in glut. As a matter of fact, some of them are in shortage - bananas, for example. Sweet peppers are another one."

St Catherine, St James, Manchester, and Portland also hosted farmers' markets on March 4.