A B.C. farmer believes he may have a solution to combat rising food costs in the province — by connecting large-scale growers directly with shoppers and offering produce at prices that match or beat larger retailers.
Gagan Singh, an Abbotsford farmer and social media influencer with more than 100,000 followers across social media platforms, is testing out the idea this weekend with a pop-up mobile farmers’ market.
Around 10 farmers will appear at three locations in Richmond, Surrey, and Abbotsford at different times on Saturday, offering produce at competitive prices — $13 for 30 fresh, free-range eggs or $5 for one kilogram of mini peppers.
“People can't even afford to pay for their groceries these days; it's very expensive. At the same time, we are losing farmers in B.C. every week because farming is not profitable,” said Singh.
Canada’s 2025 Food Price Report predicts families could spend up to $801 on food this year. Meanwhile, B.C. farms as a whole haven't turned a profit since 2017, losing $457 million in 2024 alone, according to Statistics Canada.
“The system's not working anymore, so we need to try a different way of doing things,” he said.
Singh said if shoppers buy groceries directly from farmers, it can eliminate the middleman costs, allowing farmers to sell produce at lower prices while still making a profit.
However, those who typically sell at farmers’ markets are small-scale growers, who cannot compete with large retailers on price. Large-scale farmers, who can offer competitive prices, usually prefer selling to grocery stores for consistent demand, despite sacrificing margin per unit.
“How do we get these very large farmers to stop selling to grocery stores and start selling directly to people? That way, instead of paying $4 for broccoli, we can start paying $1.50,” said Singh.
So he came up with the idea of a mobile farmers’ market, which he expects to bring one to two thousand shoppers across the three locations in a single day, including many who follow him on social media.
In exchange of the opportunity, participating farms must offer prices better than retail giants, and they will receive 100 per cent of the sales value.
“Because it's worth their time, but if they just go to one market and they only sell to 20 to 30 people, they’ll just go to sell to grocery stores instead,” said Singh.
Singh said the event aims to show that, if enough people buy directly from local large-scale farms creating a steady demand, shoppers and farmers together can tackle the rising food costs.
Singh is also testing other initiatives to achieve this goal. He previously launched a pop-up wholesale farmers’ market, where shoppers buy in bulk — for example, five pounds of carrots, at competitive prices. He said the event was very successful, attracting more than 1,000 buyers.
Last week, Singh launched a weekly community delivery program, allowing shoppers to order groceries on the Farm-to-Plate Marketplace website and have it delivered once a week at selected locations.
While still building customer scale, Singh said there is room for improvement in pricing and convenience. His ultimate goal is to create enough demand for direct farm sales so they can be offered at affordable prices, benefiting both consumers and farmers.
“These programs aren't perfect, but we have to start… We all have to work together to create a new system because, as Canadians, we don't want to wait for the government anymore to make changes,” he said.
“It's not going to happen this year, but if we keep trying, it's going to get better year after year, because we're creating a demand for local produce.”
