SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
In its fourth year, the Yellowknife Farmer's Market doubled the number of vendors sprawled around Somba K'e Civic Plaza and increased revenue by about 20 per cent, said president France Benoit.
The Yellowknife Farmers Market's revenue grew this year by about 20 per cent, says president France Benoit, with between 800 and 1,000 visitors each week that it was running. - NNSL file photo |
But next year, they're coming for your carrots.
"In order to get more produce vendors at the market, we need more produce growers!" said Benoit. She said the two existing produce growers in the city are already at the market.
So the market's board has to get creative.
"What we're hoping to see is how can we galvanize people in Yellowknife to grow what they're growing and to maybe grow more or to encourage new growers and to try to pool our resources together ... so if all you have is three carrots but there's 15 that all have three carrots, then we build volume this way," said Benoit, adding that the board may be reviewing applications for someone to help create a produce strategy as early as Monday.
This was its best year ever, according to Benoit. The number of vendors doubled, climbing to 44 from 22 the year before, many new vendors joining the fray. Benoit estimates the market had between 800 and 1,000 customers each week. And according to the market's annual patron survey, those people are repeat customers: many coming on average three times a month.
Concrete numbers weren't compiled by press time but Benoit estimates the total gross revenue for the 16-week season was around $320,000 with the average weekly sales coming in at around $20,000.
According to Farmers' Markets Ontario every dollar spent at a farmers' market circulates within the community 3.24 times, putting the impact of this year's market on the city's economy at more than a million dollars.
"This year we have over $1.062 million of direct and indirect economic impact within the city of Yellowknife," said Benoit.
"The money stays in the community," said Benoit. "For example, I make money at the market, I then turn around and I buy supplies for the following market from other vendors. I go to the Co-op, I buy a vehicle, the dealership is now able to now maybe keep somebody hired. The money circulates."
But costs are also rising.
The rental fee relief offered by the City of Yellowknife is running out, leaving the Yellowknife market with some of the highest rental fees in Canada. To help the market find its feet, the city charged a portion of the total cost to rent the space - $65 per hour - for the first five years. No fees were charged in the opening season, and the fee climbed by 20 per cent each year after that. In the 2017 season, vendors will pay 80 per cent of the rate, and by 2018 the market will be on the hook for the full $2,080 for the season. Produce, she said, is a way to keep the market moving forward.
"The number one thing that our patrons tell us in the annual survey: we want more produce," she said.
The trick is how to get it.
"We want to do, to start with, some kind of survey, and ask people is it even remotely on your radar that you would like to sell produce at the market. And if so, what keeps you from doing it?" she said.
The end result, she said, could look very much like a co-operative, an effort that's been tried in southern cities.
Toronto has Not Far From The Tree, a fruit picking project where people with fruit-bearing trees register their trees, and volunteers are mobilized to harvest the fruit, which is then split between the homeowner, volunteers and local food banks and shelters. Victoria and Vancouver each have their own versions, with the project in Vancouver harvesting nearly 60,000 pounds of fruit that otherwise would have gone to waste over the last 16 years.
There's no reason similar co-operative approaches couldn't work in Yellowknife, Benoit said.
"It's just a minor tweaking of the website to have people contact us and say you know, 'If this week somebody wants to come and pick the raspberries or the Saskatoons, please help yourself,'" she said. "It will be how to encourage people that are right now growing in their backyard."
