Price strategy in place at farmers' markets - Events to be held 10 months each year

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

On June 29, crowds are once again expected at multiple locations across Jamaica, farmers' markets will be simultaneous.

Alexander Powell, chief executive officer of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) says the markets will be held in Negril, Mandeville, Port Antonio, Port Maria, Portmore, Montego Bay and two locations in St Andrew - the Ministry of Agriculture on Hope Road and Michi's Supercentre on Washington Boulevard. Powell says the last one for the year, to be held in Michi's parking lot, is a new thrust in private-sector partnership, as the hosts will supply the required infrastructure such as tents and RADA will have technical input, such as information on the farmers attending.

RADA plays a crucial role in not only facilitating the farmers, but determining the prices of their produce. "Generally, it is farm-gate price plus the cost of transportation. So you could find that if a man comes from St Elizabeth his price may be a little bit higher than the person who comes from upper St Andrew (for a farmers' market in the Corporate Area," Powell said. Still, he said, "there is not much variation in the market, maybe $5, $7". The pricing regime is maintained for the private-sector partnerships, where the host venue has no influence on pricing.

The farmers are selected for participation based on RADA's criteria. They have to be registered farmers and in a position to bring a certain quantity of produce to the market. Importantly, Powell said, one question is, "are they willing to sell at this price?"

price monitoring

He said that research goes into the process, as "when we have the market we normally have the RADA persons who sort of give an oversight to see if prices are getting out of control. Because we want the markets to be sustainable, to be long-term, to be vibrant, to attract a lot of people, we don't want the prices to get out of hand". However, there still has to be a balance, so Powell says, "we want to make sure the farmers secure good returns on their efforts".

The prices are set before market day and here extensive research is involved. Powell said, "we develop the price points prior to the market and we communicate it to the farmers, because that is one of the conditions for them to be involved. If a farmer says 'I am going to be bringing yam' and yam may be now $70 per pound, if he says he wants $100 we may say 'you will not be able to participate in our market'. Because your production cost would have been $30 or $40 and your transportation cost is this and you would have marked up by this. All these farmers are known to us, we know what they plant, we know the input and so on".

The Sunday Gleaner asked if some farmers are resistant to this method of setting prices and Powell said, "in the first two markets farmers were resistant. In my view, they were not aware of the possible outcomes, because this was the first time we were having large-scale farmers' market conducted in several locations on one single day. They were suspicious, so what we did at the beginning was create some incentive for their participation. The Ministry of Agriculture gave us funding that we used to transport them and we used some of our own vehicles".

participate

"At around the third market, when the news was spreading like wildfire that you can make money and carry back home money in your pocket, we had people calling that they wanted to participate. We gradually weaned them off that money from the ministry and they pay for their own. Now we are charging each farmer $500 to participate in the market," Powell said.

It would seem to be a much safer bet than buying a lottery ticket, as Powell said "in all markets 99.5 per cent of the products are normally sold off".

It certainly does not hurt that RADA ascertains demand before the market is staged. "It is really bordering on demand management. First, we find out what the consumers want. Then we will make an estimate about how many persons will come."

It is on this basis that we minimise the margin of error, so we don't have farmers coming here and taking back their crops," Powell said. He pointed out that on one occasion when the produce was not sold off the vegetables were bought and donated to golden age homes.

"In any market, at any time, we are going to have anywhere, for that particular day, from 16,000 to maybe 24,000 people," Powell said, rainfall having a strong say in the turnout.

Going forward, Powell said that markets will be held at multiple venues every month, save for July - when there is the Denbigh show - and August. A minimum of four to a maximum of 10 will be held simultaneously across the island in any one month.