Scotland’s farmers markets are vital and we must protect their founding principles

When I grew up in Dumfries, local produce was a tin of carnation milk from the local factory. How times have changed. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the newly-launched Dumfries Farmers Market, where 30 local producers and suppliers will be selling everything from eggs and honey to cheese and jam.

It is the latest farmers market to open for business in Scotland, but it won’t be the last. Already a network of more than 50 stretches the length and breadth of the country, with Dumfries and Galloway boasting nearly a dozen.

Joining me to give support to the newest will be farmer Jim Fairlie, who started the movement with Scotland’s first farmers market in Perth. Disillusioned with the poor prices he was receiving for his lambs and fed up with being lambasted by the government and the media, Jim believed that farmers had to find a new way of connecting with consumers. On Saturday 3 April 1999, the Perth Farmers Market was born. It started with just a dozen stalls but, 12 years on, between 35 and 40 producers now line the streets on the first Saturday of the month.

The impact of the farmers market movement in Scotland can’t be overestimated. Tesco flies the saltire because it wants to be seen to support local, seasonal produce. This summer you’d be hard pressed to find a supermarket strawberry that doesn’t carry the name of an individual farmer. Some product packaging even has a photograph of the farmer with his happy herd.

All of these marketing ploys stem from an understanding that the farmers market brand connects the public with produce in a deep and meaningful way. Which is why we should carefully cherish and protect it.

Farmers markets have become victims of their own success and, as a result, the founding principles are coming under strain. The crowds they attract also bring other retailers keen to make a quick buck.

At a farmers market in England I saw home-knitted jumpers for sale alongside cosmetics and cakes manufactured in a small unit on an industrial estate. Carry on down that road and you are soon selling scratch cards and white cotton sports socks, three for £1.

Back at Scotland’s first farmers market its founder Jim Farlie agrees anything that damages authenticity needs to be avoided. “I’m very proud and delighted that the farmers market brand has become synonymous with good-quality farm produce. It is something that should not be jeopardised in any way”, says Jim.

More than that, they need to be protected. If shoppers believe that they are not an authentic link to production but instead just another way to get us to buy any old stuff, their very future could be in danger. Consumer confidence is everything. There is space for everyone and Edinburgh has hosted continental markets and crafts markets where all kinds of produce fills the stalls. But the farmers markets started for a particular reason and they have grown to be the success they are on the basis of a specific offering to the public.

They are are unique way to bypass big business and the crushing power of the supermarkets, and let farmers and local artisan food producers connect directly with customers. We meddle with that at our peril.

In Dumfries they have recognised that and have organised the new market accordingly, with strict rules on where produce is grown and who sells it. “We want it to have a proper farmers market brand so we will enforce this policy stringently,” says the organiser, Sarah Burchell.

They may be late to the party but Scotland’s newest farmers market could be leading where others need to follow.