Farmers markets warned of retail threat

By Andrew Arbuckle
Published on Wednesday 1 February 2012 00:00

THERE are more than 200 farm shops in Scotland and rising, but yesterday the sector was warned that the major retailers might muscle in on the territory.

Speaking in Edinburgh, retail marketing expert John Stanley said that although there were still huge opportunities for farm shops and farmers’ markets, they could not be complacent.

He warned: “Supermarkets are looking to pick up on your unique selling points. Be ready for this challenge.”

He pointed out that a major retailer was already converting parts of the massive sales area inside its shops into replicas of farmers’ markets in order to attract additional customers.

But Gareth Jones of Lloyds Europa, which has carried out a number of surveys of farm shops and shoppers, was clear that the “local” food message from farm shops was one the majors could not copy. He said there was a farm shop boom around about 2005, but the recession had brought about deep changes with consumers shopping around for bargains.

“Life is much harder now, but I believe farm shop spending is rising again,” he said.

Both speakers had earlier listened to Scottish Government Cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead state that farm shops and farmers’ markets were “close to his heart”. He said he wanted everyone in Scotland to reconnect with where their food was produced and declared that it was his ambition that every child would visit a farm as part of their schooling.

In response to a question from John Sinclair of Craigies Farm shop, he admitted that getting transport to farms was an issue for some schools, but said he would look into how this problem could be overcome.

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