Even the rain isn’t keeping shoppers away from the Vancouver Farmers Markets.

With a wide selection of locally grown berries, vegetables, and other fresh products, there’s something for everyone.

Seven markets are operating across the city this summer, supporting 264 small farms and businesses.

“Last year, we counted it all up, and we facilitated $18 million in sales,” said executive director Laura Smit.

“It’s not sales that come to us as a community-based, not-for-profit organization, but it’s sales that are… supporting local farms and local businesses and really building that human-scale, community economic impact we all particularly need these days in facing economic uncertainty.”

Smit says Vancouver Farmers Markets receives no structural funding from the City of Vancouver while paying more than $30,000 annually in city fees.

With a municipal election approaching this fall, it is hoping to work with the city on multi-year agreements instead of annual renewals, and it wants to secure more consistent and accessible spaces for the markets.

“We see the need or hope for increased water access, real proper washroom access, opportunities for electrification, getting folks off the generators,” Smit said.

“We’d like to have conversations that get into those places instead of working at the operating special event level.”

Vendors like Aman say supporting local producers benefits both shoppers and farmers.

“Since COVID, everything went expensive, but if we are just supporting our own local growth…it’s important,” Aman said.

“So we’re not depending on the corporations or the big markets. They are choosing how much they are going to pay. You know, I choose what I’m going to make. I choose how much I’m going to sell it for instead of some big corporation.”

The organization says the future of farmers markets in Vancouver will depend on whether the city continues to view them as special events or begins treating them as vital community infrastructure that deserves investment.