May 2022 - 18

FARM MARKET & AGRITOURISM
Project shows markets are essential businesses
BRIAN MOYER
Penn State Extension
bfm3@psu.edu
during the fall, particularly with meat
sales.
Customer counts were highest in June,
Pennsylvania hosts more than
330 open-air, community farmers'
markets each year. A new research
project from Penn State University 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
Agriculture'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 weekly data during the
June-to-October market season.
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, D.C., and parts of Maryland.
They have developed a Market Tracker
tool that uses Google forms to collect and
aggregate data.
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
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comparison data provided by anchor
vendors show sales were high at the
beginning of the season, with a slump in
sales in August before a slight rebound
but steadily declined each month after.
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 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, the 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 zero to five.
* Half of the markets surveyed have
been in existence for under 10
years.
* The top items sold at a market are
vegetables, fruit, meat and 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
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May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2022
