This masters’s thesis is about five Farmers’ Markets in Marseille: the Cours Julien market was created in 2001, Gavotte’s one in 2004, Saint Pierre’s one in 2005, the Toursky and Belle de Mai ones in 2010. These commercial spaces are dedicated to the distribution of local products by producers who sell directly to urban consumers.

This study starts off with an analysis of the socio-historical context in which these markets were developed and the roles of various agents during their construction. Contrary to the major part of the theories concerning alternative initiatives in the agro-food system, the development of Farmers’ Markets in Marseille is not the result of the will of consumers. Indeed, the first Farmers’ Market aroused from the encounter between producers who claimed to sell at a fair price their products, and urban organisation who wished to bring a new dynamic to their district. The Cours Julien market is considered to be a victory of the farmer’s local economic system on the globalised conventional networks. It became a model for the other agents and inspired the creation of new Farmers’ Markets in the city.
 

But what emerged from the study is that the temporality in which the different markets developed does not determine their attendance rates, which are in fact very uneven. For example, even if the Belle de Mai market is younger and less accessible, it still attracts more people than the one of Saint Pierre, which has difficulties developing even though it is more related to the city centre. We established that the spatial factors are not sufficient to explain the disparities of development between the markets, and therefore, that we had to include the sociological factors that allow the construction of the link between consumers and producers. Thus, we wondered to what extent the nature of this link is essential to the sustainability of Farmers' Markets.

To analyze this phenomenon we built a methodology based on different axes. Who are the consumers on these markets? What are their motivations to buy food directly to the farmers? Who are the producers who sell on these markets? What are the representations they have of their job and of the link with the consumers?

We showed that, generally speaking, the producers on these markets have family-owned small and middle-sized farms. They all support the concept of "Agriculture Paysanne", promoted by the French farmers union: "La Confédération Paysanne". However, selling directly to the customers on Farmers' Markets is above all motivated by economic issues. In fact, the producers perceive the link with the consumers rather as an advantage in terms of efficiency and of profitability. Nevertheless, it is not all about earning one's living better, but also about finding a meaning in one's work through the consumers' trust and gratitude.

Afterwards, we studied the social profile of the consumers in relation to the representations which conduce them to frequent these markets. Inspired by a study made by the Liproco[1] group, we established various types of proximity who connect the consumer to the producer on Farmer's Markets. For instance, does the consumer frequent the market so as to meet the producer (relational proximity); because the market stands just next to where he lives (geographical proximity); because the market is near to a public transportation access (access proximity); because the consumer as an individual agrees with the values shared by the producer (identical proximity), and so on. We have thus demonstrated that a Farmers' Market's functioning cannot be the same as the one of a classic market. They are specific commercial spaces. To gain the loyalty of the customers, it is essential that they agree with the ideological principles. If not, it would be difficult to have them admit the prices and the seasonality.

More precise results concerning the various markets are presented within this report.

           (1) The LiProCo (Lien Producteur-Consommateur) is an inter-regional project that brings together professional structures and university researcher in different human sciences fields (anthropology, geography, management, marketing, socio-economics, sociology)

 "Maïté Martinez, Le lien entre consommateurs et les producteurs sur les marchés paysans, un enjeu pour la pérennisation de ces circuits de commercialisation : le cas de Marseille, Mémoire de master 1 en Géographie, Université de Provence, 2011"