Corrales Growers’ Market thriving amid pandemic
Corrales Growers’ Market is still growing through the pandemic.
Bonnie Gonzales, the organization’s president since 1996, said small food systems such as the market are healthy and dependable from a food and economic standpoint.
“You go to a grocery store, and this is food that has gone through packaging plants and has traveled on trucks, and it has been handled and processed,” she said. “… This is food that has not traveled, that hasn’t been out on a field, been in a truck, been through a processing plant from hundreds of miles away. This is food grown right here from the person you’re buying it from. As a result, this is what we consider to be very, very safe food.”
Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jerry Schalow said places such as the growers market are doing well because people want locally grown food.
“There is a concern for safety with our food supply nationwide, and having it locally grown is a local alternative that people are preferring at this time,” he said.
This concern is changing consumers’ shopping habits and creating a demand for local growers, Schalow said.
Although Corrales’ farmers and growers are doing OK during the pandemic, they are not immune to its economic effects, Schalow said.
“Corrales is being hit as every other community is right now for retailers and restaurants,” he said. “But Corrales has farmers and growers there that are in high demand, so that part of the economy is fine.”
In 2019, Gonzales said, the market reported to the State Farmers Market Association a 79,000 total visitor count. She also reported an income of $878,000 for all producers combined last year. This year, she expects visitor counts to be down, but not sales.
The market encourages customers to shop alone and adhere to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggestions, including wearing a mask and gloves.
The market will transition to a walkthrough market in the future but will take all necessary precautions, Gonzales said.