Despite high prices, farmers' markets still thrive

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Every year Chuck Geyer and his three children truck boxes upon boxes of their plump, juicy strawberries, raspberries and other produce to a bustling Saturday farmers market near Washington.

This year, the family has started bringing something else to the market -- higher prices.

But while price hikes are rippling through farmers' markets across the United States, they are doing little to deter shoppers looking for local produce.

The 825-acre (334 hectare) Westmoreland Berry Farm in rural Oak Grove, Virginia, 83 miles south of Washington, is among the farms facing higher energy costs for everything from oil-based crop protectants to the gas they use to travel to the market.

The surge in fuel costs has prompted Geyer and his wife, Anne, to raise prices an average of 5 to 7 percent.

"We haven't passed on 100 percent of those increases to customers because everyone else is dealing with the same crunch," said Geyer, who has absorbed as much as a 15 percent shrinkage in profits to keep sales flowing.

"The volume of business is increasing because of this big push for local products," said Geyer.

Fed by the new environmental trend to buy locally, the sites are a throwback to a more traditional style of commerce and the often makeshift, outdoor markets stand in great contrast to the big box stores and hyper markets that have come to dominate the U.S. food trade.