Nova Scotia Produce Auction: Buyers

Welcome!

The Nova Scotia Produce Auction Feasibility Study is a project of Spirit Nova Scotia's (www.spiritnovascotia.ca) Local Food Team.

In our vision, Nova Scotia has rich top soil, clean air and water, resilient farm and fishing communities, and healthy, local food for all citizens. We engage and inspire all Nova Scotians to celebrate and protect this inheritance for future generations.

This project is also supported by the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (www.oacc.info) and has received funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through Agri-Futures, Nova Scotia's Adaptation Council.

The purpose of a produce auction is to provide a convenient wholesale outlet that complements existing wholesale or retail activities of growers, while providing an opportunity for new entrants and small growers to sell their produce without having to take on their own marketing. There are over 50 wholesale produce auctions in the United States and one in Southern Ontario, and they offer a venue for growers and buyers to come together several times a week during the growing season to buy and sell vegetables, fruits, flowers, nursery stock and transplants.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Buyers

Who are the buyers at wholesale produce auctions?

Many buyers are farmers who also sell at the auction - they buy produce that they don't grow themselves or that need more volume of for their roadside stands or to sell at their farmer's market stall.

Other buyers include farm markets, independent grocery stores, resellers, restaurants, and grocery chains.

At the Elmira Produce Auction near Kitchener, Ontario, the auction is also a means for getting local produce into large grocery stores and university cafeterias. Buyers come from 4 Foodland grocery stores in the area as well as from the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo's food service companies. They are trying to address the huge demand from their customers for local produce, and they feel it makes sense to support local farmers in their region.