Project Shows Farmers Markets Are Essential Businesses

By Brian F. Moyer

Pennsylvania hosts over 330 open-air, community farmers markets each year. A new research project from Penn State gives a snapshot of the contribution farmers markets make to the local food economy in our Commonwealth.

Research findings indicate estimated gross sales of $18 million when measuring 15% of the farmers markets in Pennsylvania.  Using this ration, we can estimate a conservative figure of $100 million of direct economic activity over a six month market season. Whether it's open-air farmers markets, on-farm markets, or public markets, these are essential businesses that provide more than fresh food. They create jobs, help drive the local economy, and allow farms and food artisans to retain a much higher portion of the food dollar.

At the end of 2020, Penn State Extension received $10,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Ag’s PA Preferred program to do a data collection project for the 2021 market season. The project's goal was to create a culture of data collection within markets and use the findings to tell the story of the value and importance of these essential businesses in Pennsylvania.

The project had 18 markets volunteer to collect data each week of the market season from June through October. Markets were in five of the seven regions of the state representing urban, suburban, and rural locations.

The team worked with FreshFarm, which oversees farmers markets in Virginia, Washington DC, and parts of Maryland. They have developed a Market Tracker tool that uses Google forms to collect and aggregate data from the markets.

At the beginning of the project, markets filled out a form with their market name, day of the week the market is open, county location, zip code, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) info, and any additional matching dollars program.

Each week market managers would enter their customer counts, the number of SNAP transactions, SNAP dollars distributed and redeemed, and SNAP bonus or matching dollars distributed and redeemed. Market managers also asked their anchor produce and meat vendors for their number of daily transactions and whether their gross sales were higher, lower, or the same as the previous week’s sales.

Fifteen of the 18 markets in the project accept SNAP. There were 5,918 SNAP transactions for the season for those 15 markets, with a total redemption of $165,114 in SNAP dollars and $91,524 in match dollars redeemed. SNAP transactions were 1.54% of the entire customer count, which was 383,967.

Transaction numbers and sales comparison data provided by anchor vendors show sales were high at the beginning of the season with a slump in sales in August and a slight rebound in Fall, particularly with meat sales.

Customer counts were their highest in June and steadily declined each month of the season. There is plenty of data that shows the average customer spends between $10 and $20 on market day. If we assume that each customer of the 383,967 that attended the markets in the project spent $15, you get an estimated gross sale of $5,759.505 of economic activity generated by those 18 markets.

At the end of the 2021 season, Penn State Extension sent out a survey to market managers. Thirty markets completed the survey. The average market size was 10 vendors. The number of volunteers at a market ranged from 0 to 5. Half of the markets surveyed have been in existence for under 10 years. The top items sold at a market are vegetables, fruit, meat & poultry, baked goods, and flowers.

The 30 markets that completed the survey gave us an estimated gross sale of $12 million.

One thing is certain, markets are more than a nice event in our communities. They are essential to our local food economy. Markets provide a common space for farms and food businesses to offer their products and incubate new businesses. Penn State Extension will continue this research collecting data again for the 2022 season.