The Pee Dee State Farmers Market hopes to add a $2.5 million amphitheater for concerts and arts events to its list of offerings. South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers called the venture "a revenue generator" while making the pitch to state legislators Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2026. (Photo courtesy of SC Department of Agriculture)
COLUMBIA — On a trip to the Pee Dee State Farmers Market, visitors can browse through refurbished antique furniture, take a class on raising bonsai trees or see the nation’s second-largest nursery dedicated solely to raising carnivorous plants.
The market, which sits on 50 acres along the northeast edge of Florence, hopes to add an amphitheater for concerts and arts events to its list of offerings. South Carolina’s agriculture agency, which operates all of the state’s three markets, is asking legislators to set aside $2.5 million for this latest venture.
“This could give us an identity that’s different from anything else out there,” Pee Dee Market Manager Bob Sager told the SC Daily Gazette.
The state Department of Agriculture spent the past three years trying to come up with ideas for redeveloping space where a series of old greenhouses once stood.
The agency considered a campground, but then a private company opened a similar business about 3 miles away. So, the market then turned its attention to a possible event center, which could become “a revenue generator,” Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers told a House budget panel this week.
Each of the state’s three markets — in Florence, Lexington, and Greenville counties — have their own niche.
The Pee Dee market tends to draw visitors throughout the week and earns most of its income from the 27 annual leases that vendors have signed for permanent spaces inside the market. It also rents out four other buildings on the grounds. Altogether those leases bring in about $290,000 annually, according to information provided by the Agriculture Department.
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The market recently signed leases with a beekeeper who plans to teach seminars and a natural wood furniture maker for the last open vendor spaces, Sager said.
The 100-acre State Farmers Market sits far outside the Columbia city center.
While the opening of two new buildings housing the state agencies that oversee K-12 education and natural resources mean more traffic from the agencies’ employees coming on to the property each day, the market is largely focused on vendors selling wholesale produce.
It earns about $840,000 annually.
The Midlands area market is also home to state-run laboratories that test animal feed, dairy and seeds, as well as gasoline and other fuels.
The Greenville location is more of a traditional urban market, drawing crowds on Saturdays with about 20 part-time vendors to choose from.
Still, none of the three markets make enough money on their own to cover all of their operating costs.
For the budget year that ended June 30, 2024, the Midlands area market received about $316,000 in state funding to make up the shortfall and the Pee Dee market received about $370,000.
The Greenville market relies on money it made from selling off a portion of its property in 2017 to make up the difference between earnings and operating costs.
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The Pee Dee Market could earn more and reduce its reliance on state funds by charging admission for music events, Sager said.
The events also could draw more people to the market, meaning more potential customers for the on-site restaurant — Aloha Kitchen, run by a family who moved to South Carolina from Maui, Hawaii — as well as the other vendors who lease space there.
Sager also hopes music events will bring more young families with children to the market, broadening its customer base.
The market already has a couple events geared toward children, including a Harvest Festival in October, which boasts pumpkin painting and hayrides, and Race Fest, which coincides with Labor Day weekend Nascar races at Darlington Raceway.
The request is one piece of the additional $36 million total the Department of Agriculture is requesting for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The bulk of that, $30 million, would go toward recruiting agribusinesses to the state.
Other requests include $860,000 to make up for a reduction in funding for federally mandated food inspections, and $580,000 to hire seven new restaurant inspectors.
In addition to the three state farmers markets, there are about 140 community-based farmers markets statewide where people can buy fresh produce and meat.
Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
