City putting pressure on farmers' market to stay open 6 days a week

The Saskatoon Farmers' Market's time in in the city-owned Farmers' Market Building, where it has been since 2007, might be coming to an end.

A city committee would like to see the tenancy open up to competition through a request for proposals.

They want to see a farmers' market in the building open six days a week rather than the current three days.

Erika Quiring, operations manager with the Saskatoon Farmers' Market, said that would be hard to do.

"Farming requires significant time and effort and people need to be in their gardens or with their animals or producing whatever product it is they make," Quiring said.

The Farmers' Market has about 100 seasonal vendors and 60 year-round vendors.

Quiring said the "make it, bake it, gather it, grow it" ethos of the Saskatoon Farmers' Market is at risk of being lost if the space is converted to a public market.

She said "core compromises" might need to be made to the farmers' market mandate in order to meet the city's request that a market be open six days a week in the space.

"We want this space to be a shining jewel as well but we don't want to compromise the integrity of Saskatoon Farmers' Market at the same time," she said.

The recommendation will be brought to council on Sept. 24 and Quiring said she will be in attendance.

The Saskatoon Farmers' Market also intends to submit a proposal if that's the direction the city decides to go.

'Very disturbing'

Adithya Ramachandran and his wife are full-time farmers and vendors at the market. He's also the president of the Saskatoon Farmers' Market board of directors.

He said he is one of the vendors who would struggle to be at the market six days a week.

"It's very, very disturbing, and it's not a market that we farmers would sell at."

He said all authentic Canadian farmers' markets operate this way, giving the examples of the St. Norbert Farmers' Market in Winnipeg, the Regina Farmers' Market, and the Old Strathacona Farmers' Market in Edmonton.

He said he doesn't want to see a public market that might bring in food from outside Canada and might not have the same values as the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

Pros and cons

Farmers' market vendor Kerry Kelly — who goes by KJ — said he's not surprised the city is looking at other options.

"We don't utilize the space enough here," he said. "We're not as busy as we could be. I think the farmers' market board is not doing enough to bring people in."

He said he sees pros and cons to having the market open six days a week.

With more days open, it would give people more options for when they decide to visit and perhaps attract new customers.

"At the same time, you run the risk of thinning out the crowd, too."

His biggest concern, though, is that he'd like to stay in the Farmers' Market Building.

Location, location, location

Joe Obirai agreed that the location is one of the best aspects of being a vendor at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market, saying it draws people from the surrounding neighbourhoods and it's close to his bakery.

He would come to the market six days a week but he's not confident the market would get enough traffic.

"If there was an opportunity for us to be here six days a week and to have the traffic come in here, why not?"

Brenda Wallace, director of environmental and corporate initiatives for the City of Saskatoon said in a release that the area has changed drastically in the 10 years since the Farmers' Market Building was converted from an electrical utility building.

"The original concept plan for River Landing outlined ambitious dreams for this space and the City wants to determine if we can move closer to realizing them with increased market days and activity in the building," she said in the release.

The release says the Saskatoon Farmers' Market has submitted a business plan as part of the lease renewal negotiations but the plan doesn't include the daily operation the city committee would like to see.