An Analysis of the Paths and Methods for the Transformation and Upgrading of Farmers' Markets
With urban development and the people's demand for convenience in daily life, traditional farmers' markets urgently need transformation and upgrading, achieving standardized, smart, and branded development through new construction and renovation.
Do a good job in development planning. Farmers' markets are the carrier and bond linking farmers' production and marketing with residents' daily consumption. Whether scientific planning and rational layout can be achieved affects the cost of urban distribution logistics, whether urban traffic can flow smoothly, and whether residents' lives are convenient. It is necessary to consider population density and structure, and scientifically plan the construction and renovation of farmers' markets according to factors such as service radius and demand. Following the approach of "combining dredging with blocking," replace street markets and other "scattered, unregulated vendors" with regularized, standardized markets, purify the market and urban environment, and meet the needs of urban development and residents' lives. First, reasonably lay out farmers' markets of appropriate scale in newly built communities. Second, renovate and upgrade traditional farmers' markets in old urban areas to make their service functions more complete and their business environment better. Third, plan, construct, and renovate farmers' markets by category. Plan, construct, and renovate according to different areas such as central urban districts, urban-rural fringe areas, and small towns, as well as different market types such as specialized and comprehensive, retail and wholesale, adopting different spatial layouts, scale structures, and business characteristics respectively, to form a reasonable market system and strive to achieve the goal of enabling residents to meet their daily consumption needs right at their doorstep.
Achieve functional upgrading. Implement the approach of supply-side structural reform and the people-oriented concept, understand market development trends, follow the laws of market development, conduct in-depth research on the needs of business operators and residents, and satisfy market functions and the needs of operators and residents as much as possible. First, properly match functions such as parking and public toilets. This includes the parking needs of business operators and residents. Where conditions permit, consideration can be given to building smart three-dimensional parking facilities, and the construction and renovation of farmers' markets can be organically combined with the construction of bus stations to facilitate residents' shopping at farmers' markets. Due to limited space in central urban farmers' markets, it is recommended that surrounding parking facilities take the form of smart three-dimensional parking buildings; their operation is best managed in an integrated manner by the market investment entity together with the farmers' market, adopting appropriate parking fee policies, and at night they can provide parking services for surrounding residents. Second, focus on combining offline and online functions. Through the construction of online mobile smart platforms, build smart farmers' markets, enabling services such as residents' online ordering and market home delivery, expanding the industrial chain and better meeting residents' service needs. Third, achieve the combination of domestic and foreign product marketing. Modern urban farmers' markets should not only sell local agricultural products but should also provide residents with high-quality domestic and international agricultural products. Achieving the above functional upgrading of farmers' markets requires close cooperation and coordinated advancement by departments such as urban planning, land and resources, industry and commerce, urban management, and commerce.
Promote environmental improvement. Traditional farmers' markets, due to unreasonable spatial layout, disordered product functional zoning, lack of drainage functions, and backward market management, suffer from problems such as unguaranteed product quality, chaotic business order, unguaranteed market safety, and dirty and messy market environments. The construction of new farmers' markets and the renovation of traditional farmers' markets must ensure that product circulation has a source and is tested, creating a "trusted market" that the public can rely on. Following supermarket standards, do a good job in spatial layout, environmental decoration, and product placement, avoiding situations such as sewage flowing everywhere, stench assailing the nose, and dirty and messy environments, eliminating the phenomenon of "opening a market, disrupting the neighborhood, and disturbing residents," and truly making new farmers' markets a window and highlight of civilized city creation.
Innovate investment methods. Farmers' markets are closely related to residents' lives and have the nature of quasi-public goods; their construction can adopt a method of organically combining government and market. The government can guide social capital to build and operate farmers' markets through land policies, fiscal investment, and other means, exploring the PPP model. When government funds participate in farmers' market investment, following the principle of "participating in shares without controlling, calculating dividends without distributing dividends," the farmers' market is controlled and operated by the social investment entity and supervised by the competent government department. At year-end, the investment dividends of government funds are calculated, but these dividends continue to serve as government investment to support the transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development of farmers' markets.
Do a good job in operations management. The management and operation of farmers' markets is an important part of urban management and operation. It requires the industry and commerce or commerce department to take the lead, as well as collaboration from relevant departments such as quality supervision, food and drug, urban management, and agriculture. First, formulate regulatory standards. Regulatory regulations should be formulated considering product and service quality, whether sanitation is clean, whether the environment is beautiful, whether functions are complete, whether integrity is good, and whether customers are satisfied. Hire third parties to regularly evaluate the market, and implement "star-rating" management of farmers' markets and licensed operation of business operators. Second, implement a branding strategy. Promote the branded development and image-based marketing of farmers' markets. Competent departments such as industry and commerce should focus on creating branded investment and operation entities for farmers' markets, introducing branded business operators and branded products, and creating a group of farmers' markets that satisfy the masses and give residents confidence.