FRA Re-Launches Real Farmers Market Certification

The Farm Retail Association is bringing consistency and clarity to what it means to be a real Farmers Market with the re-launch of its certification scheme.

Farmers Markets across the UK provide thousands of farmers with a viable local route to market their produce.

The ‘Real Farmers Market’ certification scheme has been refreshed and devised to give the public a clear understanding of which markets are true Farmers Markets.

To become a certified Real Farmers Market there are eight key principles that must be met:

• Champion the farmers – customers should be able to buy directly from the farmers, growers and producers who grow and produce the products on sale.
• Prioritise local produce – It’s important to recruit stallholders from as close to the market as possible and the majority of stallholders come from within the county in which the market is located.
• Be proud of your provenance – Each stallholder should have either been grown or produced, baked or made by the stallholders at your market. 
• Understand your product(s) – Stallholders should be able to talk to customers about how the product has been produced from field to fork and give customers accurate advice and clear information on how the product has been created.
• Be correctly insured – All traders must have suitable Public, Product and Employment Insurance in place to protect their customers.
• Follow the correct legal procedures – All traders and markets must follow all relevant national and local laws, and as a minimum ensure that each trader is registered with Trading Standards and Environmental Health.
• Promote yourself as a ‘Real Farmers Market’ – Be proud to fulfil these principles and shout about it in your communications, clearly talking to customers about the farmers, suppliers and products that make it a ‘Real Farmers Market’.
• Enforce the above principles – The market organiser should have systems in place to ensure that the above principles are enforced at all times.

Emma Mosey, Chair of the FRA comments, “It is vital that there is an industry standard for Farmers Markets in the UK so customers can be sure of the provenance and locality of the produce. Once a Farmers Market has demonstrated their credentials and been awarded certification, the FRA will commit to promoting the Farmers Market in many ways including a logo on each market web page, an opportunity to be entered in the annual FRA awards, inclusion in press releases and on social media.”

For more information about joining the Real Farmers Market scheme or the Farm Retail Association, please contact hello@farmretail.co.uk