Driven by a desire to promote buying locally produced food, the National Farmers Union of New Brunswick (NFU-NB) passed a resolution in 2016 to develop a map highlighting all the available farmers’ markets in the province to help make it easier for New Brunswickers to purchase from local farmers.
With the support of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Department of Tourism, NFU-NB has been updating, printing, and distributing the maps every two years for a decade.
Suzanne Fournier, executive director for NFU-NB, said that there has been a real growth in the desire to shop locally.
“The Covid pandemic did something for local food buying that many years of trying to promote buying local, could not do,” said Fournier. “There was a huge uptick in 2020-2022.”
While the farm market shopping boom dropped a bit after 2022, the NFU-NB “have seen a resurgence in the last year or so with the trade and tariff issues.”
Fournier said that when buying from your local farm market, you are buying directly from the producer. You don’t have to worry about where your food was grown, processed, packaged, and distributed from. When buying local, “It’s all made and produced here in Canada,” said Fournier.
As a way of celebrating the 10th anniversary of their “Buy Local” initiative, the NFU-NB is hosting a “Market Passport Contest”. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2026, anyone aged 10 and over can get a passport from their local farmers’ market, the NFU-NB, or the NB Food and Beverages team, and collect 10 unique stickers from any of the 44 New Brunswick farmers’ markets. Once they have filled out their passport, they can enter to win one of 13 prizes consisting of local food and beverage products. Fournier did note that “due to some unfortunate delays, some markets will not have their passports and stickers until August 11, 2026.”
Members of the NFU-NB will be travelling to 35 markets during the contest period to meet local vendors, shoppers, and local food supporters of all ages to promote the passport contest, the Map of Farmers’ Markets, and the New Brunswick agricultural sector. They will also be on site to personally hand out their own unique passport sticker. They will also have a limited number of free reusable cloth bags at each market.
Details about the contest, including the dates that NFU-NB members will be visiting the markets, can be found at www.nfunb.org/events/. The updated 2026 list of New Brunswick farmers’ markets can also be found on their website.
