I have been to a fair few 'farmers' markets. I see many vendors who probably are not farmers. My guess is, if you are indeed a farmer, depending on your size, you are probably selling it to the stores - or only some of the produce in the local markets.
I am interested to know whats the business model like for a fresh produce vendor if you are not a farmer ?
Where do they acquire the vegetables to be sold ? Is there a state central selling/buying place ? Whats the go with it all?
How does one go about finding such trading places ? Say in Sydney.
Thanks for the links mate. Very helpful. How did you know of these places? If I want to know the same for saw Darwin or Canberra, how do I go about it ? Google spits f all.
@tik tok: I drove past that bychance once and looked it up. You'll want to find a fruit & veg wholesaler.
This one looks like one of the most prominent in Darwin: https://www.simongeorge.com.au/
bulk central markets where farmers and wholesalers meet early in the morn to do deals.
Not exactly how it generally works. Nearly all growers consign their good to a marketing agent, better know as market agents. These are the stall holders in the central markets.
The agents take the goods on consignment and keep a % of the sale price (usually around 15%).
The agent does all the wheeling and dealing to the fruit and veg wholesalers, large retailers etc and sells it for the best price they can get on that day. Woolies and Coles generally skip the agent step and deal direct with growers.
It is purely a supply and demand driven price market with pricing variances that also take into consideration the varying quality of produce available.
So for a 10kg case of Tomato on any given day the price might for example be in the range of $22-28 depending on the quality. A few weeks down the track that same carton of Tomato might sell for $42-$48 because there is less supply available.
Generally the folks you see down the markets selling lots of different types of fruit and veg are buying from a Wholesaler.
The supply chain is generally - Grower > Agent > Wholesaler > Market Stall
The term wholesale/wholesaler has been shocking over the last several years, in any industry. Every Tom, Dick & Harry are now wholesalers providing unbelievable discounts that gullible people fall for just because they have wholesaler at the end of there shop name.
Real wholesalers don't touch the general public with a 6-foot barge pole. Too much hassle.
@Lichen6420: Exactly. The real term is long forgotten. Now it's just a marketing scheme to sound like a bargain.
I'm waiting for "Wholesale Wholesale Pty Ltd"
The 'farmers markets' that I have visited all had specific criteria for the sellers to adhere to; they had to have produced the goods.
So the centralised fruit/veggie wholesale markets wouldn't be behind those retailers.
Farmers markets are most likely own grown or they get straight from farm gate.
Every decent city has a bulk central markets where farmers and wholesalers meet early in the morn to do deals.