Information about CDI's Farmers' Market Program  |  NE Direct Marketing Conference  |  Helpful links


(Scroll down to join the New England Farmers' Market Exchange!)  
 

Farmers’ markets encourage consumers to buy produce and products directly from farmers. These markets can be key organizations for expanding local market opportunity for farmers, yet all too often, weakness in their business structure undermines the fulfillment of their economic and community promise. 

Boards and managers come up against significant problems that can impede the market’s success. Most farmers’ markets are group-based businesses based on group ownership and decision-making. With many voices contributing to the organization, unique challenges arise. It is easy for markets to end up in a negative cycle that needs to be broken, such as:

Markets need to attract sufficient customers to make the farmers' market effort worthwhile to vendors → to attract sufficient customers, more products and more farmers need to participate → but farmers are reluctuct to commit unless the market is booming → if a sufficient amount of vendors don't commit, the market won’t boom → and back to "Markets need to attract sufficient customers"...

Another common issue is burnout among volunteer managers and the struggle farmers’ markets have raising resources to hire managers, conduct marketing, make capital improvements, etc. 

Farmers’ markets need assistance with board development issues and with helping members, managers and boards understand their roles and responsibilities.

The Strengthening Farmers' Markets through Business Training series created by Cooperative Development Institute addresses these issues and many others to help managers and boards with their unique challenges and acheive success from their opportunities.

The self-directed training program, consisting of the Powerpoint presentations, below, covers such governance and management topics as: 

- Legal Structures for Farmers Markets
- Board, staff and vendor roles
- Fundraising 
- Business planning 
- Marketing the farmer's market 
- Resolving farmer's market conflicts
- Rapid Market Assessment
- How to measure the economic impact of your farmers' market
-  and more...

Let us know if you need another format by emailing info@cdi.coop.

This resource is possible through the generous support of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (NE SARE)

*** CDI IS HOSTING THE NEW ENGLAND FARMERS' MARKET EXCHANGE (NEFME), A LIST-SERV FOR THOSE WHO WANT THEIR MARKETS TO GROW. PLEASE JOIN THE COMMUNITY BY INCLUDING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BELOW!

Information about CDI's Farmers' Market Program  |  NE Direct Marketing Conference  |  Helpful links   

Cooperative Development Institute is leading a region-wide training program to help farmers’ markets strengthen the business aspects of their operations.