Farmers’ markets and farm shops offer priceless value – Jayne Dowle

I might not know what I’m going to do with those nobbly carrots and earthy potatoes, but it makes me happy to know that I’ve bought direct from the grower, that my strawberries (in season) haven’t been shipped halfway across the world and that minimal plastic was used in their transportation.

The local farm shop is a rather more decorous affair, the café favoured by ladies who lunch. It always pleases me to see locally-reared meat, locally-made pies, savouries and cakes and row after row of jams and chutneys lined up neatly with ‘‘Yorkshire’’ on their labels. There’s even Yorkshire-made gin for sale.

And now new research by NFU Mutual shows that food provenance and ‘‘shopping local’’ are high on the list of consumer priorities with 70 per cent of respondents saying they believed that farm shops offered “fresher, better-quality produce” than other retailers and supermarkets.

Eight out of 10 of survey respondents believed that supporting local businesses and the economy was a priority, with nine out of 10 people citing friendly service as the main reason for choosing farm shops and similar local retailers this Christmas.

It makes total sense, and that’s why I’m urging everyone to support their local farm and farming outlets as the year draws to a close.

The Farm Retail Association (FRA) says that there are now well in excess of 1,000 farm shops operating in the UK. In addition, there are at least 650 farmers’ markets, often held monthly and operating in towns and city centres as well as the countryside.

Farm shops, and their cafés, contribute an estimated combined turnover of more than £1.5bn to the UK economy, reveals the FRA.

And they are also helping to transform the wider regional economy, putting Yorkshire firmly on the map.

Four years ago Otley, near Leeds, hit the headlines when property portal Zoopla named it as one of the leading UK locations where the close proximity of a farmers’ market had put a premium on property prices.

Interestingly, the market only came into being in 2002, and was established through funding from the Market Towns Initiative that sought to breathe new life into traditional town centres.

Coming in at number eight as the only Yorkshire location in the Top 10 list, which included Marylebone in central London and Altrincham in Greater Manchester, Otley’s (then) average house price, at £273,625, was 52.5 per cent above the comparable house price across Yorkshire (£179,421).

It’s definitely true to say then that ‘‘where there’s muck, there’s brass’’ as the old adage goes. Who would have thought that being able to stroll out on a Sunday morning to buy carrots fresh from their fields would have the power to influence house prices to such an extent?

It doesn’t surprise me, however. When I speak to people ‘‘down South’’ about what it might be like to relocate to Yorkshire, one of their first questions is often “is there a farmers’ market or a farm shop nearby”.

For some city dwellers, the idea of popping along to pick up a nice joint of pork with the pig’s name on it forms part of a particular kind of fanciful bucolic dream, but the growing interest in sourced and sustainable foodstuffs of all sorts is very genuine.

The popularity of the farmers’ market, farm shops – plus pick your own (PYO) establishments, farm-gate vending machines, home deliveries and local box schemes – proves that our much-publicised reliance on the internet for everything has a flip-side. It signals what forecasters refer to as hybrid shopping, putting purchasing decisions directly into the hands of consumers. In our region, there is great potential to benefit from this.

Given the success of farm shops and farmers’ markets across the county, I’d like to see what Zoopla would make of the ‘‘farmers’ market effect’’ in Yorkshire now. The pandemic has certainly not dimmed our interest, but heightened the desire to stay – and support – local.

Back to the land has become a vital driver of our region’s future prosperity. And if we know what’s good for us, in all senses, we should back it to the hilt.

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