Agroecology is increasingly recognized as a strategy to shift away from industrial agricultural practices and pursue comprehensive transformations in food systems. Previous studies have demonstrated the alignment of market gardening short food supply chains with agroecological principles. However, the viability of small and medium-scale market gardening farms is questioned. Our study explores the socio-economic viability of 18 market gardeners in Coeur de Condroz (55 880 inhabitants, 625 km²; Belgium). We analyze characteristics, distribution channels, and key challenges of market gardeners within the food chain via semi-structured interviews and discuss how they influence the market gardeners’ viability. The low profitability of market gardening farms along with the challenging working conditions raise concerns about the socio-economic viability of market gardening farms. However, this needs to be qualified by looking at how market gardeners actually perceive it and using other indicators than the revenue and profit before taxes. The viability of farms is also influenced by the collaboration among market gardeners, marketing strategies, and challenges within the food chain. The local cooperative plays a vital role in fostering collaboration among market gardeners. Local institutions, catering, and longer distribution channels are currently unviable options for market gardeners due to practical or competitive constrains. Key issues within the food chain encompass limited land availability, skilled workforce scarcity, inadequate training, consumer behavior, and lack of political recognition. Based on these results, we advocate studying short food supply chains for agroecological transitions with a systemic perspective, understanding all actors' needs. Ethically conducted participatory action research, along with other transdisciplinary and participatory methodologies, is crucial for studying and developing agroecological supply chains like market gardening in Coeur de Condroz.