The Farm Retail Association has announced that it is relaunching its certification scheme to make it clear what counts as a real farmers’ market.
To be certified, markets must adhere to eight key principles.
These principles are: championing the farmers, prioritising local produce, exhibiting pride in provenance, understanding the product(s), possessing correct insurance, adhering to legal procedures, promoting themselves as a ‘Real Farmers Market’, and enforcing these principles.
- The first principle ensures that customers should be able to buy directly from the farmers, growers, and producers who supply the market.
- The second emphasises the importance of recruiting stallholders from as close to the market as possible.
- Pride in provenance requires stallholders to have either grown, produced, baked, or made their products themselves.
- Stallholders should be able to provide customers with accurate advice about their products, from field to fork.
- All traders must have suitable public, product, and employment insurance to protect their customers.
- They must also follow all relevant national and local laws, and ensure each trader is registered with Trading Standards and Environmental Health.
For more information about joining the Real Farmers Market scheme or the Farm Retail Association, contact hello@farmretail.co.uk.