VOORHEESVILLE — A new project through the Cornell Cooperative Extension will analyze varying prices of farmers’ market products throughout eastern New York State.

Steve Hadcock, a Cornell Cooperative Extension educator and collaborator on the project, says the goal is to inform vendors at these markets of ways to better profit from their sales. However, some vendors feel there is no need for instructions on how to sell their goods.

The extension’s intern, Lindsey McMahon, will visit farmers’ markets, including those in Putnam and Ulster counties, the Capital District, and the Schenectady and Saratoga areas. A separate team made up of volunteers will cover the North Country up to the Canadian border.

McMahon will compile the data each week, and the information will be shared with vendors through the extension’s electronic newsletters, email blasts, flyers, social media sites like Facebook, and local newspapers. McMahon says the success of the project will depend on what is disseminated from the findings, and how well the information is spread.

McMahon expects to have data collected in two weeks or so to be shared. She’ll conduct the project for six or seven weeks, until she returns to school at Cornell University, but Hadcock hopes to continue gathering data with volunteers throughout September and October.

McMahon is an animal science major entering her sophomore year at Cornell. She grew up on a dairy farm in Petersburgh, New York, and, while her family’s farm never sold products at farmers’ markets, she became interested in their operations. She has been collaborating with advisors at school for the past few months on this project and began her research last week, visiting farmers’ markets in Troy, Colonie, Menands, Saratoga, and Delmar on Saturday.

McMahon has designed a word document table, featuring every tracked product. She will mark down the price, the product’s unit of measurement, and whether it is a conventional product versus something categorized as grass-fed or organic. McMahon then will return to the office and enter the data in an Excel spreadsheet based on the region.

Vendors’ views

Many vendors at farmers’ markets assert that the higher prices at the markets are expected by consumers, due to several added costs of doing business at a market, and that guidelines on how to price their goods are unnecessary.

“I think vendors can figure it out on their own,” said Armin Hrelja, “Otherwise they wouldn’t be in business.” Hrelja runs Euro Delicacies, which sells ready-to-eat Mediterranean food at farmers’ markets throughout the Capital District as well as at the Empire State Plaza.

For vendors at farmers’ markets, the costs may increase in unexpected ways. Vendors must pay a fee at each farmers’ market they attend, which can add up as some visit as many markets as possible in order to increase their sales.

Heidi Flynn, who sells gourmet cheese with her husband, Jim, from their business Worldlings Pleasure at nine different farmers’ markets, says some fees have increased from $50 to $125 a year. Vendors must also pay for liability insurance each year, and other costs include credit-card sales and the cost of energy and equipment to produce their products.

Richard Ronconi, owner of Partridge Run Farm and Apiary, has been raising honey bees for nearly 50 years. Since retiring 20 years ago, he has turned his hobby into a business. Ronconi says he is lucky to be a retiree, and not dependant on his business. He describes his business as self-sustaining, and something he does not have to take out of for his own living. However, he says it can be difficult for farmers who are trying to make a living off of selling at farmers’ markets.

“No right or wrong”

McMahon says she can understand that there may be some vendors who will be adverse to advice on pricing, but says they should be aware the project is just publishing pricing information.

“We’re not trying to step on anyone’s toes,” she says, “There’s no right or wrong way, this is just informative material.” She added, it is up to the farmers and vendors to do what want with the information.

Evelyn MacIntosh, owner of Curlingstone Farm, a greenhouse selling annuals, perennials, herbs, vegetables, and some field vegetables, thinks this information could be useful.

“I think it should be monitored, so, if there are new vendors, you kind of keep in the same price range,” she said.

MacIntosh says she would like to learn from the extension’s data what the market price for plants is, so she can price her plants fairly, and that she would like to improve her labeling system so customers clearly know the price of a plant. She would also like to find a way to better inform her customers at the farmers’ market about her business.

Unfortunately for MacIntosh, the products being studied for this summer are only vegetables, some fruits, and some select meats. Other factors such as overhead cost and advertising won’t be studied either. McMahon says she and the rest of the team decided for this summer it would be more effective to only collect data, rather than analyze the overhead costs behind the price.

“That really is a whole project in itself,” she said.

McMahon hopes that high or increased prices of farmers’ market products will not dissuade consumers from buying them, and that they will go to farmers’ markets and pay more in order to support their community and its vendors.

“The differences, if there are any, they’ll be rather minute,” she says of the prices a consumer will pay.

In regards to the effects on consumers, Hadcock says he is aware some areas may be more sensitive to increased prices than others, but notes that programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, can help those with a low income still purchase food at farmers’ markets. He adds that it is necessary to look at the the sustainability of farms and covering their cost of production.

“It is a balance between the two,” he said, “What an individual community can afford to pay and what farmers need to sell for.”

McMahon hopes to find variations in pricing, and variations in different areas and different seasons.

“They’ll see the people up north are, say, charged two dollars more,” she said, adding that a product such as strawberries could be more expensive mid-season than early season even though one farmer may charge a flat price throughout.

“In terms of local food products in general, it could be very useful,” she says.