Bill Howatson: Markets must pull together to avoid stalling

TWELVE years after their launch, Scotland’s farmers’ markets have been urged to think regional in a bid to meet consumer expectations.

The advice comes from the national development officer for farmers’ markets, Douglas Watson, who has played a pivotal role in the sector since the “pretty wacky” start in Perth in 1999.

Over the years, farmers’ markets have captured the public imagination. They lay claim to a package of benefits, including social, economic, environmental and dietary; and have done much to raise an awareness of food and farming.

With Scottish Government blessing, the markets have created a niche, and offered valuable start-up opportunities for small and medium businesses.

But, according to Watson, they have now reached a point where they must avoid being marooned on a plateau and becoming overly formulaic.

With 73 markets, 53 operators, and 900 market occasions a year, farmers’ markets are a visible part of Scottish life. They account for about 2 per cent of the Scottish food market.

Watson, whose energetic support for the market concept via his employer, the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society, (SAOS) has never waned, is rapidly coming to the view that some of the sector’s challenges have to be faced.

An alarming fact cited by Watson is that not one individual farmer in the past year has inquired about taking on a new stall – a fact that strikes right at the heart of the definition of farmers’ markets. Watson says the answer to this lies in ensuring that the markets represent a valuable and valued outlet for farmers, especially those on low margins, and the task for market organisers is to incentivise farmers to come forward.

Challenges also rest on the need to attract new entrants to the market scene, as well as maintaining a variety of produce and the development of new products, not least from Scotland’s ethnic minorities.

Among other issues are those of infrastructure limitations in towns, particularly in relation to traditional market squares, many of which have been gobbled up by development over the years, losing a traditional setting in the process. This point was made by the Scottish Farmers’ Market Partnership – set up in 2010 to look into the potential for collaborative and co-operative working – to the Portas Review of the problems facing Britain’s high streets.

Watson argues that Scottish planning authorities have a key role to play in creating the right environment for markets and small businesses, allowing both to be useful tools for town centre regeneration. More pressing is a need for a highly professional approach by organisers allied to increasing the scale of operations to help derive additional income.

The overarching requirement, Watson says, is greater collaboration between markets – not a course every stallholder shares with enthusiasm – leading to a greater regional emphasis in markets linked to the promotion of Scottish food and drink.

Examples of successful regional approaches are already there for viewing – the “Food from Argyll” and Dumfries and Galloway’s “Savour the Flavours” campaigns both encourage the creation of stronger food and drink industries in their areas, with clear branding and solid identities.

It is hardly surprising that Watson, with long experience in collaborative marketing and working together in the rural co-op sector, favours this approach.

His message is straightforward: a more co-ordinated approach would deliver the benefits of operating at a strategic level and be better able to obtain backing and support from local authorities.

Over the years there has been much talk in market circles at Scottish, regional and local branding, but not enough clarity about what language should be used to express the core beliefs and purposes of farmers’ markets, he says.

Farmers’ markets have to become increasingly commercial, area-based and industry-led in Watson’s opinion, and this is an issue that has to be tackled head-on.

It will inevitably mean that some markets have to give up their independence, but this would be compensated by finding common solutions, Watson says.

Scotland’s farmers’ markets have done a great deal to create a better communication and understanding between farmer-producers and their customers, and developing that fruitful process between markets could usher in a new era for an old form of commerce and trading.