Forget about gold mines, timber or LNG – B.C.’s hottest commodities might just be fresh-baked bread and locally sourced honey.
West Coast farmers’ markets contributed $233 million to the provincial economy last year, according to a March 6 study from the B.C. Association of Farmers’ Markets and the University of Northern British Columbia.
That’s up from 2022’s $182 million overall economic impact on the provincial economy.
This year’s serious amount of dough included $155 million in direct sales – up from $121 million in 2022.
The study also found a typical market averaging 40 vendor stalls injects $6.7 million into the surrounding local economy. Bigger markets with more than 100 vendors show economic impacts exceeding $12 million each year.
There were five million visits to B.C. farmers’ markets in 2023 compared with 4.4 million in 2022. Taking inflation into account, total spending per shopper grew from $40.58 to $42.50 during that same period.
Meantime, the number of farmers’ markets grew from 109 to 136, and the number of market days grew annually from 2,792 to 3,491.
The study based its results on 70 farmers market assessments completed across the province between May and September of 2023.
