The third wave of Indonesia’s food market: Practices at small community markets in Yogyakarta

Abstract

There is growing awareness among people living in developing countries of the importance of healthy lifestyles. Farmers’ markets (FMs) are a rather new type of market in Indonesia, succeeding traditional and modern markets. They began to appear in 2006 in Bali and were established in Yogyakarta in the early 2010s. This article contributes to limited research in this area by presenting a qualitative analysis of market participants with three main aims: to explore the meanings of local and healthy food from the vendors’/managers’ perspective, to identify the vendors’/managers’ motives for using FMs, and to examine the mechanisms underpinning the performance of FMs. I found no consensus regarding the meanings of local and healthy food. Instead, market participants have a geographically wide concept of ‘local’ that includes perceived high-quality (and healthy) raw materials from all over the Indonesian Archipelago. To assure the quality of food from such distant sources, formal and informal market mechanisms are used in Greater Yogyakarta FMs, as evidenced by the unique practices designed by the markets’ vendors and managers.