Farmers markets are big business and a big job

When Tammy Neumann started running the Iowa City Farmers Market nine years ago, the Saturday market boasted 38 vendors that took up half of the first floor of the Chauncey Swan parking garage.

Since then, the market has grown to 140 vendors. They take up the entire floor and spill onto Washington Street.

Along with the traditional market offerings of produce and baked goods, there are now stalls serving prepared food such as pancakes, burritos and wood-fired pizzas. Live music and activities for children draw people in.

The reason for the growth was simple — demand. Vendors had been on a waitlist for a spot at the market for years. And with the growing popularity of the buy-local food movement, consumers were showing up.

According to a Farmers Market Economic Impact Survey published in 2010 by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship — based on customer and vendor surveys conducted in 2004 and 2009 — market sales in Iowa increased 92 percent between 2004 and 2009.

Moreover, the study estimated over $71 million a year was related to activity at the markets.

Growing their markets makes good economic sense for communities, but that growth comes with challenges.

A lot to Juggle

As administrative secretary for the Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department, running the market was just one of Neumann's duties. But she estimates she was spending 60 to 75 percent of her time on market operations during the season.

The department also runs Wednesday and Tuesday evening markets.

Farmers markets in Eastern Iowa

'The market had grown to the point where it was difficult to do the other parts of my position and do the farmers market,' she said.

So the city is now contracting out market operations.

Cedar Rapids-based Ava Centre, an event services business, will run the Iowa City market this year. The city is paying the company $55,000 for the season, with a contract through March 2016.

And Iowa City is not alone in seeing its market grow.

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance launched its Downtown Farmers Market in 2006. The Alliance estimates a combined $10.3 million economic impact from that market's first nine seasons.

The market has expanded from 50 vendors over a three-block area to more than 200 vendors over ten-blocks.

Jill Wilkins, event planner for the Economic Alliance, has run the market for eight of its first nine years. From organizing street closures and security to making sure there are enough plastic ties to hang banners to booking music and selecting and coordinating vendors, behind-the-scenes operations are a huge undertaking.

'It's a yearlong planning process,' Wilkins said. 'The checklist is a mile long.'

On market days, some 30 staff and volunteers do everything from directing traffic for 200 vendors trying to set up all their booths at once to making sure garbage cans are emptied.

Room to Grow

The number of farmers markets has grown steadily over the past decade, in Iowa and across the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported 8,268 markets in 2014, compared with 3,706 in 2004.

That includes around 230 markets in the state of Iowa — a number that has held more-or-less steady since 2009.

Paul Ovrom, program planner with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and administrator at the Iowa Farmers Market Nutrition Program, said while the number of new markets in Iowa has stabilized, existing markets continue to add new vendors.

That creates competition for those vendors, some of whom are selling at multiple markets a week.

There still is room for growth — in the 2009 study, the typical age of both market vendors and consumers was 51 to 65 years old. To keep growing, markets need to attract younger vendors and customers.

Not every market has the resources to marshal dozens of volunteers or contract out services as do Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

'A lot of the market managers in Iowa are volunteers, and a large portion of those are vendors at the market. They're juggling what they're producing and the issues at the market,' Ovrom said.

Still, he noted many of those managers are seeking ways to make their markets a destination. The Iowa Farmers Market Association holds an annual workshop for market managers, and he said a regular topic is how to make a market about more than just produce.

'It's always a big issue' at the workshop, he said. 'People want something to go do in an evening or a Saturday morning.'