A number of small businesses which usually sell their wares at Kent's biggest farmers' markets have gone digital.

Stall holders from My Farmers Market – which takes place in West Malling, Bexley, Dartford and Chislehurst – have been coming up with new ways to ensure their produce gets to their customers.

They have been helped by Sandra and Brian Woodfall who have been running the markets for 20 years.

Sandra regularly updates customers with news from stall holders, letting people know how they can get their hands on their favourite products.

This includes contact details and dates each seller is doing deliveries.

Sandra said: "There's quite a lot for them to take on; most of them have never done online ordering, most of them haven't done deliveries."

During one of the last markets in West Malling, Sandra found despite concious efforts to make sure social distancing measures were in place, some members of the public were hostile to the fact they were open.

Farmers' market can still technically operate as food businesses, but Sandra took the decision to close all of My Farmers Market for the time being.

Some farmers markets in Kent are continuing to operate, whereas others are encouraging their stall holders to go digital where possible.

She said: "We thought it was the right thing to do and we are just hoping the stall holders will be able to sell online, do deliveries and they will be taking enough money to save some of them.

"It's all quite sad but we felt it was the right thing to do so we could focus on supporting the small producers with their deliveries and things like that.

"We are trying to do our best to help them as much as we can and we couldn't do that and carry on the markets."

The last time the couple were forced to shut down operations was during the foot and mouth outbreak, but Sandra – who is from Delting – says this is the longest they have had to shut.

As well as updating the My Farmers Market website and Facebook pages for each market, Sandra also sends out a newsletter of updates.

The couple were instrumental in helping Paynes Nursery, based in Rainham, set up a plant delivery service for the Bearsted area.

Sandra said: "They were at the point where they were going to skip all their plants completely but I promoted them on Facebook to see if people were interested in a plant delivery service and they got 350 orders."

To find out more about My Farmers Markets, visit their website.

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