THE farmers' market movement in this country is not as well developed as it is in the USA. Over there most towns have at least one market and, in many cases, more. Many farmers make all their living from selling their produce through these outlets. Here it is not the case.

Many farmers use these markets as part of their business, but not all types of farmer can benefit.

It is difficult to imagine how, for example, a sugar beet producer could make use of such an outlet.

It seems to me that one of the main reasons there are so many more farmer's markets there than here comes back to the nature of retailing in this country. The distance involved is another.

Many observers regard the UK supermarkets as the most highly developed and sophisticated in the world.

They provide a huge range of goods, but their origins were mostly in the food sector of retailing. That is where their impact has been greatest.

For hundreds of years markets came to towns when people who grew vegetables, or produced meat, used to gather together in a centre of population to sell the output surplus to that which they needed to avoid starvation.

The original stallholders were farmers. As the years went on the retailing was split from the production. Basically that remains the case.

There has been a small swing to producers gathering together to sell direct to their consumers.

There is now quite a large number of farmers' markets but, in terms of the total production of the farming industry, the surface has hardly been scratched.

There have been a number of initiatives to encourage local stores to take produce from local producers.

Although the distances in Britain are not great, it cannot make sense to transport live animals to abattoirs miles from their origin, just to transport them back again to be sold near to where they were produced. The roads are already overcrowded.

Similarly, it makes no sense to haul vegetables miles to a packing factory.

In this context the initiative from the Prince of Wales and the Institute of Grocery Distribution to encourage local producers and retailers to get together to sell locally-produced food is to be welcomed.

There does seem to be more genuine interest in the origin of food.

Good butchers have always been able to offer traceability. They know where their meat comes from and, therefore, so can the customer.

More notice may be taken of this initiative, with backers like these, than is usually the case.

Supermarkets sell most of the food in this country. It is difficult to imagine a situation where that will not be the case.

There will always be small outlets for specialist produce, and for those who do not, for whatever reason, like to shop in supermarkets.

The St. Nicholas Fayre, scheduled to start in York city centre on November 22 is a case in point.

Twenty-two producers of specialist goods will be doing their best to sell as much of their output as possible directly to the consumers.

It is idle to pretend that their united efforts represent a major change to the buying habits of the great British consumer.

However, for those few producers it will make a small difference. A few more jobs will be a little more secure. There will be a little more money to go into the local economy to buy everything from CDs to cars.

We live in an every-little-helps' world and for this little help we should all be grateful.