New data provided by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) puts the value of local food sales in 2008 at US$4.8 billion, considerably higher than food industry estimates. The department predicts sales in this area will be worth more than US$7 billion in the 2011 year.
The USDA report includes sales of locally grown foods via farmers’ markets, roadside stalls, local grocery outlets, and restaurants in its data. The report is the first that quantifies sales on the basis of sound statistical information.
Direct farm sales alone have increased by 85% to $1.2 billion in 2008, since the early 1990s. As more consumers have become interested in fresh farm produce thousands of farmers have taken to supplying direct, with 40% of all fruit and vegetable growers in the United States now involved in the local trade.
This compares with just 5% of total farm numbers supplying local, and is confirmed by the rapidly increasing number of operating farmers’ markets. Between 1998 and 2009 the number of these operations increased from 2756 to 5274, with 136,000 farmers now selling direct to consumers across the country.
Stephen Vogel, who helped do the study for the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, commented, “What this report does is say, ‘Look, this market is bigger than you thought.’”
It is sure to stimulate further response from urban retail operators who see the local phenomenon as a possible driver of sales growth in the supermarket sector if they can find a way in.
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