Going Once, Going Twice, Sold at Virginia Produce Auctions Throughout the State

In partnership with: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

The regular Thursday morning produce auction is underway in Dayton. However, instead of farm tools or antiques, the auctioneer is coordinating the sale of boxes of tomatoes. When the tomatoes are sold, the auctioneer starts the bidding on pallets of peppers and then cantaloupe.

This is the Shenandoah Valley Produce Auction (SVPA), the largest wholesale produce auction in Virginia, where area growers sell in bulk to buyers such as roadside stand owners, farm markets, independent grocery stores, restaurants or anyone who wants a large quantity of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Produce auctions operate similarly to other auctions.

“It’s supply and demand that day,” says Jeff Heatwole, SVPA manager. “The price of tomatoes in May and June, for example, is drastically different than it is in August when the volume is much greater.”

A group of local producers started SVPA in 2005, theorizing area growers and buyers could do business together in a central location.

“They’d seen this model work in Pennsylvania and thought we ought to do it here,” Heatwole says. Of the approximately 80 produce auctions across the U.S., most are in areas with significant Amish and Old Order Mennonite communities. “The majority of our growers are part of the Old Order Mennonite community in our area,” Heatwole says. “When we started, there was no other produce auction of this nature in Virginia.”

Today there are at least four in the state.

One-Stop Shopping

“The auction is a one-stop market for farmers who can spend less time searching for buyers and more time doing what they like to do, which is farming,” Heatwole says. “Marketing themselves and their produce is not something our growers want to spend a lot of time doing.”

In contrast, selling at farmers markets yields higher prices for growers but is time intensive and can result in lost product and revenue when produce doesn’t sell that day. At the auction, “it is rare that we have a day where not everything sells,” Heatwole says. If that does happen, SVPA has an ongoing relationship with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which buys whatever is left over at discounted prices.

For buyers, the advantages are similar.

“They come to one location and find everything they want that’s grown locally, bidding accordingly to the quality they see,” Heatwole explains.

Monica Francis, Courtland Produce Auction’s manager, agrees.

“Buyers can get an entire bin of pumpkins, for example, for a pretty good deal compared to going to the farmers market and buying that way,” she adds.

The Southampton County-based auction, which runs June through October, draws primarily the same growers from year to year.

“People come here knowing who they are buying from, and typically our farmers are here during the auction, so you get to know them,” Francis says. “I think that makes us a little different than other places.”

See more: Conservation Considerations Are a Priority for Virginia Farmers

Success for All

Actively assisting producers helps make Foothills Produce Auction (FPA) unique, says manager Sydney Wood.

“We work year-round to help growers build larger crop plans and do our best to educate new and upcoming growers,” Wood says of the Rocky Mount auction. “FPA was created out of a desire to strengthen produce production locally. Our main goal is to keep local produce local and allow our farmers to connect directly with our buyers.”

All three managers say their produce auctions are growing. In fact, SVPA is building a large addition. Heatwole notes the auction’s sales totaled $4.5 million in 2022.

“As we grow and expand, we’re very grateful to the community and everyone who’s had a part in that,” he says. “The more the auction succeeds, the more it grows, and the more buyers and sellers come in. That makes everyone more successful.”

See more: A New Grant Program Offers a Fresh Take on Improving Food Access