So far, so good for Ashburton’s mini-fieldays.

The Ruralco instore days, which began yesterday, brings vendors and special deals to its Ashburton shop for two days only.

Yesterday there’d been a good showing of people, maybe in part because of the rain, chairperson Sir David Carter said.

Sir David and chief executive Tony Aitken had started their Thursday at the Rakaia store, which was busy in itself.

“The farmers come in, and some of them won’t have seen each other since the year before. They come here to catch up,” Aitken said.

Ruralco was established in Ashburton 63 years ago by a group of local farmers.

Then called the Ashburton Trading Society, they wanted to lower input prices for the community, and that mission has remained the same for the co-operative even until now.

“We’ve always been Mid Canterbury based,” Aitken said.

“Every dollar they spend here, stays here.”

Empowering local community was the main message Ruralco wanted to impress on its members, with over 80 stallholders set up in the Ashburton building.

“We’ve got to be loyal to Ashburton, because Ashburton and Mid Canterbury are very loyal to us,” Sir David said.

“It’s generational. We’ve got people in third generations still holding the original account number of grandad when he opened.”

There were some big names at the event on Thursday, including Federated Farmers’ national president Wayne Langford and The Country’s radio host Jamie Mackay.

And so far, consumer interest and sales were looking good. That was in part due to the “buoyancy and outlook for agriculture in Mid Canterbury, particularly in dairy, sheep and beef,” Sir David said.

“I was just talking to the Ford agent, he's selling more vehicles than they’d anticipated.”

The instore days continue today at all three stores in Rakaia, Methven and Ashburton.

by Anisha Satya