Mercato ritrovato - Farmers' market
About this good practice
The Emilia-Romagna region has a long tradition in agri-food sector, with many products of excellence. Lately, a need to preserve and promote traditional and local food has grown, shortening and enhancing the agri-food chain between producer and city consumer.
With this scope the Metropolitan city of Bologna promoted a farmers’ market that melted quality local food with cultural events, providing funding to cover the purchase of the facilities and the costs of setting up services provided by the implementing body.
The Mercato Ritrovato (which means Rediscovered Market) started in 2008, promoting local quality and fair products sold directly by their producers in the spaces offered by the Cineteca (a cultural foundation).
In 2017 the association who run the project quit, but the producers associated in order to continue to run the Market on their own.
The Market occurs weekly and besides selling fresh and cooked food, it promotes among Bologna’s inhabitants a deeper knowledge of local agriculture through children activities, music shows and various performances.
The Market started with 20 local farms while now there are 50 of them and the association is completely autonomous from external financing.
During Covid emergency, the Spesa Ritrovata (spesa.mercatoritrovato.it) service was set up: IT application to book products online, with the possibility of free pick-up or home delivery. The service delivers once a week to the consumers the same products sold at the Market.
Resources needed
In the starting phase, the Metropolitan City of Bologna and a bank offered 45.000 €.
When the producers’ association was created, another bank offered a small financing, equal to 2-3% of turnover, during 2017-2019.
The association has one employee and pays some external collaborators.
Evidence of success
The Market is valuable for the farmers, as they were just 20 at the beginning while now there are more than 50 farms. It started with one square while now it’s held on two squares and the roads around them have been pedestrianized in order to facilitate the access and fruition of the Market.
The Market is a successful story, as it’s now completely self-sufficient thanks to the people who continue to buy and eat there, enjoying the added value of the market.
Potential for learning or transfer
In order to have a successful local market that regularly offers high quality products it’s necessary to adopt strict rules for the farmers’ access to the market. The Rediscovered Market is restricted to small producers, who struggle to access large-scale distribution and at the same time can often guarantee quality. The products sold at the Market meet the criteria of Excellent (taste), Clean (caring for the environment), Fair, Traditional, Typical and Local. For each product category, rules are listed in order to guide the producers to comply with Market’s criteria.
Acting this way there we can offer a short supply chain, the products sold have a high quality and freshness reducing pollution and food waste. People are more aware of seasonality of agriculture products and can know better local products, having direct access to them. Local food market sold by its producer links closely the city with the country, promoting biodiversity and empowering local farmers.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Association Il Mercato ritrovato