Economic Impact of the Ag Park
Spring has arrived! Here at CCUA our greenhouses at the Ag Park and Veterans Urban Farm are full of big beautiful plants. The fields are planted with lettuce and onion. Then energy and excitement of this new growing season is palpable. Every day I see more people coming out to enjoy the new space we’ve created at Columbia’s Agriculture Park. Kids on the playground, teenagers skateboarding, families walking the trails, happy dogs on a walk enjoying the fresh air. New gardens at the Agriculture Park are starting to take shape. Day by day things get a little greener and the park is a little more built out, a very exciting time indeed. The walls of the winter farmers market have been rolled up and the summer season of Columbia Farmers Market has begun.
While you’re at the market you’ll notice that not all of the farmers have a roof over their head. Many are still using pop up tents in the area adjacent to the MU Health Care Pavilion. Our goal is to build the remainder of the pavilion this winter so that in 2022, all 98 vendor booths will be covered by a roof! The impact of this extra roof space will be obvious to you the customer. Dry on rainy days. Cool and shady in the middle of summer. The impact on the farmers however is much more than that. We’ve been analyzing some data from Columbia Farmers Market to demonstrate the impact of the MU Health Care Pavilion on sales at Columbia Farmers Market since the building has been constructed.
In 2019, the first phase of the farmers market pavilion opened, which included a large concrete pad to accommodate 98 vendor booths and a four-season pavilion that covers 40 of those booths, allowing for year-round sales at this location. Since the completion of the first phase, even despite the impacts of COVID-19, farmers have reported increased sales and employment. This addition of roof space in 2019 has resulted in the market having around $2.2M in annual sales in both 2019 and 2020, up from about $1.6M in both 2017 and 2018. Total annual sales at Columbia Farmers Market increased by 39% between 2018 (no pavilion) and 2019 (pavilion opened July 2019). When the second phase of the pavilion is completed and 58 more vendor stalls are built, we estimate that sales will increase by 39% again. Pushing them up to over $3M per year in 2022.
The economic impact of the market is larger than the sales though. When money circulates through these local businesses, it has a larger impact on the people in mid-Missouri. Some of these indirect economic effects include how the farmers spend their revenues with local companies and by hiring local people. Using economic models developed by Colorado State University, we estimate that the total economic impact of 2022’s estimated $3M in sales will be a nearly $5M impact on the economy of mid-Missouri.
Farmers who sell at Columbia Farmers Market reported employing significantly more staff after the completion of the first phase of the pavilion. In 2018, Columbia Farmers Market vendors employed a total of 62 employees, today they employ 276. Over half of those jobs in 2021 were full time. That is a 280% increase in the number of people employed by the farmers market vendors. Wow! We are estimating that employment will double between 2021 and 2023 as a result of completing the market pavilion. This anticipated job growth will provide increased economic opportunities for rural communities of mid-Missouri that fall within the Columbia Farmers Market 50-mile catchment area.
Community feedback indicates an unmet demand for more local food purchases. We anticipate that after completion of the final phase of the market pavilion, sales and employment numbers will rise at a rate at least equal to what was seen with the first phase. Our budget to complete the pavilion’s construction is $1 million. An amount which will be “paid back” with increased market sales in just over one year. This is a sound investment in mid-Missouri’s local food system and will provide stability and economic opportunity to local farmers for generations to come.
We are well on our way to having that $1 million in hand to begin construction on this next phase of the Ag Park. If we can meet that goal by June 1st, all farmers at the market will be selling under one big roof next summer! Learn more or make a donation at www.BuildThisTown.org/Donate
