Vendors across Harris County may have to pay an additional permit fee to continue operating at farmers markets in the wake of a tightened enforcement of guidelines by the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services department.
Roughly one-third of the 37 vendors at the monthly Bridgeland Farmers Market in Cypress could be affected by the guidelines, which call for vendors to purchase an $80 temporary food permit every 14 days for the sale of unwrapped food or potentially hazardous food not prepared or processed by a farmer. These items could include items, such as hamburgers, tamales, salsas or shaved ice.
The guidelines will mainly affect vendors who earn most of their business by handing out samples, said Michelle Bundy, a vendor at the Bridgeland Farmers Market and board president of the Tomball Farmers Market.
“I’d say sampling increases your sales by at least 50 percent at a farmers market,” she said. “With Harris County telling [vendors] to pay $80 or not sample at all, that cuts their profits. At a once-a-month market, [the fee] will kill vendors, and they will stop coming to this market. They’re going to choose to go outside Harris County.”
Harris County regulations
In 2011 the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 81 to stipulate local health departments, including HCPHES, could no longer charge all farmers market vendors $80 for a temporary food permit to last 14 days. The permits would total $2,080 each year if a vendor attended a market every weekend, HCPHES communications coordinator Brenda Cabaniss said.
“We recognized from feedback from the farmers markets that this was a burden to the true farmers trying to sell their products,” Cabaniss said. “As such, we worked to reduce the permit fee countywide.”
As a result, HCPHES established a $125 annual farmers market vendor’s permit in March 2012 to allow qualifying vendors to sell products at county markets, Cabaniss said. To qualify for the farmers market vendor’s permit, applicants have to meet the county’s criteria of a farmers market vendor, and the venue has to consist of 51 percent qualifying vendors, Cabaniss said.
“Those who do not qualify as a farmers market vendor must purchase a temporary event permit not only because they do not meet the definition, but because they have to meet a separate set of food safety guidelines,” Cabaniss said.
Effect on vendors
Board members with the Bridgeland Farmers Market said they may be required to start enforcing the temporary food permit fee by the time of the September market. The board recently met with representatives of HCPHES to learn about the regulations and how it will affect certain vendors, but not all of their questions could be answered.
Tim King, owner of King of the Pit, sells a variety of homemade barbecue sauce flavors at the market each month. Although he has a manufacturer’s license to produce his sauce, King said he would need to pay the fee to give away samples.
“If it’s $80 for two weeks, Harris County would be making more money than I would in quite a few instances,” he said. “When I sample, it increases my sales by at least 75 percent.”
Higinio and Ascencion Amado, owners of GrandE Tamales, said they would like more information from the county regarding how the $80 fee will be spent. The couple started their business 10 years ago by selling handcrafted tamales at farmers markets across Houston and have since opened a brick and mortar location in Pinehurst.
“We’re a small business, like everyone here,” Higinio said. “We do cook everything in commercial kitchens, so we follow all the rules and have all the permits. It’s expensive to pay extra when you come to a [farmers] market.”
