For­far mar­ket marks their first birthday

Com­munity-led Pro­du­cers of Angus Mar­kets (Pam) cel­eb­rated a big first birth­day in For­far at the week­end. It is a year since the not-for-profit organ­isa­tion was launched with a pledge to bring back reg­u­lar pro­duce mar­kets to For­far and Mon­trose.

The pre­vi­ous group which ran events, Angus Farm­ers’ Mar­kets, fol­ded early last year.

Under Pam, monthly mar­kets have been suc­cess­fully run­ning in each town since last Septem­ber. Pam com­mit­tee chair­wo­man Fiona Walsh told us they have gone “from strength to strength”. And attend­ances in both Angus towns have sur­passed expect­a­tions, she said.

She added:

“It has been quite an under­tak­ing and chal­len­ging at times. But it’s gone really well, which makes all the hard work of the com­mit­tee worth­while.”

Mar­kets in Ball­house car park, Mon­trose, take place on the first Sat­urday of each month. For­far’s mar­kets are in the town’s com­munity cam­pus on the second Sat­urday of every month. Mar­kets at both loc­a­tions usu­ally run from 10am to 2pm.

But, such is their suc­cess, many traders are now run­ning out of goods by 1pm. Fiona said:

“About 70% of the traders at both mar­kets are from Angus. This goes to show these events are really help­ing to sup­port local pro­du­cers.”

Sat­urday’s mar­ket in For­far coin­cided with Pam’s first birth­day.

Pam’s team is now hop­ing to achieve Real Farm­ers’ Mar­ket (RFM) status. These Farm Retail Asso­ci­ation accred­it­a­tions are aimed at giv­ing “con­sist­ency and clar­ity” to what farm­ers’ mar­kets actu­ally are.

In order to achieve RFM status, events must:

• Cham­pion farm­ers – cus­tom­ers should be able to buy dir­ectly from farm­ers, grow­ers pro­du­cers.
• Pri­or­it­ise local pro­duce by recruit­ing stall-hold­ers from as close to the mar­ket as pos­sible. Most should come from within the county in which the mar­ket is loc­ated.
• High­light proven­ance – pro­duce should have either been made, grown or pro­duced by stall­hold­ers at the mar­ket.
• Stall-hold­ers should be able to talk to cus­tom­ers about their products’ jour­ney from field to fork, and give accur­ate advice and clear inform­a­tion on how they have been cre­ated.
• Be cor­rectly insured – all traders must have suit­able pub­lic, product and employ­ment and insur­ance in order to cus­tom­ers.
• Fol­low cor­rect legal pro­ced­ures – all traders and mar­kets must fol­low rel­ev­ant national and local laws, and as a min­imum ensure every trader is registered with trad­ing stand­ards and envir­on­mental health.
• Pro­mote them­selves as a “Real Farm­ers’ Mar­ket”, high­light­ing the accred­it­a­tion in their com­mu­nic­a­tions and talk­ing to cus­tom­ers about farm­ers, sup­pli­ers and products.

The mar­ket organ­iser should have sys­tems in place to make sure these prin­ciples are enforced at all times.

Fiona said: “We meet all place in pro­tect the cri­teria, so I can’t think why we can­not become a Real Farm­ers’ Mar­ket, so fin­gers crossed.”

More than £17,000 has been donated by Angus Rural Part­ner­ship, sup­por­ted by the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment’s Rural Com­munity-led Local Devel­op­ment Fund, to help pay for new mar­ket stalls and other equip­ment. And there’s extra sup­port in the form of a grant from social enter­prise-focused First­port. Cash was also donated by Mrs Wil­li­am­ina Mclaren’s Trust Fund to help more people, espe­cially those who can’t eas­ily get out, reach the mar­kets in Mon­trose.

This article was published in the Courier on 11 May 2026