A major supermarket chain in Canada wants to hop on the farmers market bandwagon, but Bob Chorney, president of Farmers’ Markets Canada, isn’t buying it.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd., which owns Atlantic Superstores, announced in August that it will be “bringing the farmers market to Canadian neighbourhood grocery stores — all in one convenient location with bushels of variety.” According to a company executive, the supermarket chain will try to “replicate the farmers market experience” by having someone on hand who can “provide insight into where the product comes from and who the grower is.”
Chorney, who knows the difference between a real farmers market and an imposter, explained in an interview with a reporter for the Canadian Press, that what the Loblaw corporation can not provide is a good deal for small farmers.
Research conducted by Farmers' Markets Canada, which represents 550 farmers markets across the country, shows that farmers receive just 10 to 21 percent of the retail price of their produce at supermarkets, “not enough for a small family farm to survive on, while at farmers markets they get to keep an average 84 percent,” Chorney said.
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