Direct Marketing of Fresh Produce: Understanding Consumer Purchasing Decisions.’’ Choices 21,4(2006):1–6

make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. 1 Direct marketing to consumers by small and medium-sized producers is on the rise and becoming an important source of revenue for farms with more limited economies of scale. Evidence of direct marketing’s growing significance is documented in the 2002 USDA Ag Census which found that the number of farmers using direct marketing strategies had increased from 110,639 to 116,733 between 1997 and 2002. The average value of direct sales per farm rose from $5349 to $6958 while nationwide, total receipts from marketing direct to consumers by producers increased by 37 % to over 8 million dollars during the same time period. Concurrent with increases in the number of farmers who participate in direct sales to consumers, the number of direct marketing channels has also grown. The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service notes that while sales via farmer’s markets is less than 2 percent of U.S. produce sales, the number of farmer’s markets nationwide has grown b