By Carmelo Troccoli, Director General of World Farmers Markets Coalition

When we first came together to build the World Farmers Markets Coalition, our ambition was clear: to connect the many people and organizations around the world working every day to strengthen farmers markets and local food systems.

What has happened since has gone beyond what we could have imagined.

Founded in 2022, the World Farmers Markets Coalition has grown into a global network representing more than 100 organizations across more than 80 countries, connecting over 28,000 farmers markets, more than 330,000 farming families and more than 400 million consumers through its network. Since our first General Assembly in Rome in 2023, our membership has grown by 51%.

These numbers are important. But they tell only part of the story.

Behind every number is a market, a farmer, a family, a community and a relationship between people who produce food and those who consume it.

That is what makes the WorldFMC more than a network. It is a growing international community built around a shared belief in the importance of local food systems.

From Rome to Nairobi

Our first three General Assemblies took place in Rome. Those meetings were important milestones in the development of the Coalition, but their importance went beyond the formal agenda.

They gave us something that is increasingly valuable in an interconnected but often very distant world: the opportunity to meet face to face.

There is a particular quality to an in-person meeting that cannot be completely reproduced online.

When people sit around the same table, exchange experiences, visit a market together or continue a conversation after a formal session has ended, new ideas emerge. Partnerships are created. Differences in context become easier to understand. Trust is built.

For an international organization such as the WorldFMC, these relationships are not a secondary benefit. They are part of the work itself.

Our regional meetings in recent years, from Europe to Asia, North America and South America, alongside our many engagements across Africa, have shown us again how valuable direct exchange between members can be.

Now, for the first time, we are taking our General Assembly outside Italy.

Nairobi is therefore much more than a new location. It is a significant step in the evolution of the WorldFMC.

Why Nairobi matters

The choice of Kenya reflects the growing importance of Africa within our Coalition and within the global conversation around local food systems.

Across Africa, farmers markets and local food initiatives are deeply connected to local economies and communities. They can provide spaces where producers and consumers meet, but also platforms for entrepreneurship, cooperation, knowledge exchange and community development.

The WorldFMC has increasingly strengthened its presence on the continent through cooperation projects and relationships with local organizations and institutions.

Holding our General Assembly in Nairobi allows us to bring the global Coalition closer to these experiences.

The Coalition entering a new phase

The Nairobi Assembly comes at an important moment for the WorldFMC.

In just a few years, we have moved from the creation of a new international network to a community representing organizations and farmers markets across every major region of the world.

Our work has also expanded.

We are developing international cooperation projects, strengthening our regional constituencies, producing knowledge and policy work, and engaging with international institutions on issues affecting local food systems.

Farmers markets are places of commerce, but they are also places where communities meet. They can strengthen connections between rural and urban areas, support family farming, contribute to biodiversity and create opportunities for producers to engage directly with consumers.

This broader perspective is essential as we look at the future of food systems.

The questions we face, from food security and climate resilience to rural livelihoods, biodiversity and access to food, cannot be addressed by one organization or one country alone. They require cooperation.

The value of being together

We live in an era in which technology allows us to communicate instantly across continents. This has transformed international cooperation and made it possible for organizations like ours to remain connected throughout the year.

But digital communication should complement, not replace,  the relationships created through meeting in person.

The most important outcomes of an international meeting are not always the ones written into the programme.

Sometimes they happen when a market manager from one country discovers that a farmer in another country has solved a problem they have been struggling with.

Sometimes they happen when two organizations realize that they could work together. Sometimes they happen simply because people from very different places discover that, despite their differences, they share the same challenges and aspirations.

This is the human infrastructure of an international network. And it is something we need to continue investing in.

Growing local food systems together

The theme of this year’s General Assembly, “Growing Local Food Systems”, captures where we are today.

We are not simply discussing how to grow the number of farmers markets. We are asking how local food systems can become stronger, more resilient, more inclusive and better connected to the communities they serve.

We are asking how farmers can have more sustainable livelihoods. How women and young people can have greater opportunities within agriculture and local food economies. How cities can create an environment in which farmers markets can flourish. How communities can strengthen their relationship with the food they eat.

Nairobi gives us the opportunity to have these conversations together.

It will bring approximately 100 delegates from around 80 countries around the same table. It will allow us to take stock of what the WorldFMC has achieved, discuss our priorities for the future, strengthen our governance and celebrate the people and places contributing to the development of local food systems through the WorldFMC Awards.

The next chapter

Every General Assembly is both a moment to look back and a moment to look forward. From our first meetings in Rome to our gathering in Nairobi, the WorldFMC has grown considerably. But growth also brings responsibility.

We need to ensure that our network remains a place where members from different regions have a voice, where knowledge is shared openly, where cooperation produces practical results and where the diversity of local experiences remains at the heart of our work.

Nairobi will help us define that next chapter.

The future of local food systems will be built through millions of local relationships, between farmers and consumers, communities and institutions, cities and rural areas, and through the willingness of people to learn from one another.

The World Farmers Markets Coalition exists to strengthen those connections.

And as we meet in Nairobi, we are reminded that growing local food systems also means growing the global community that supports them.