The objective is to support small local producers and food businesses to have access to a market that values and supports their work and builds lasting and direct, face-to-face connection with local consumers.
Main results / outcomes
About 40 farmers and food producers from the region of Varna participate in the market. The farmers and food producers are the ultimate price-setters which positively affects their income and negotiating power. Their profit is not limited to a single act of exchange, but comes from developed stable connections with local consumers, which in turn allows producers to rely on regular incomes. The market is a place not only to a trade and commercial exchange, but is a social space used as a frame for organizing various campaigns for educating consumers in the advantages of organic, biodynamic and clean agricultural products and food and promoting a culture of environmentally friendly way of life.
Practical recommendations
Farmers’ markets hold high potential for replicability in areas where there is a need to support small local producers to receive fair price for their produce and to build direct, face-to-face connection with local consumers. They are reflecting regional characteristics like farming systems, number of producers, consumers’ habits, etc. and as such hold unique features and practices that could be replicated in different contexts. Usually, farmers’ markets provide visibility and traceability of the origin of the products and serve as channels for connecting producers from periurban and rural areas with consumers from the city. Farmers’ markets could be also used as a space for building social and cultural proximity, providing opportunities for workshops and lectures that promote environmentally friendly production and consumption of food.
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