HIKE IN PRICES BAFFLES MINISTER
Premila Kumar says fruits and vegetables not hampered by COVID-19 pandemic.
Prices of local fruits and vegetables have soared in local municipal markets despite no external factors, even with COVID-19.
Minister for Local Government Premila Kumar, while touring the Suva market yesterday, found this quite strange because the production of fruits and vegetables is not hampered by the disease.
She feels there were people trying to take advantage of the current pandemic crisis, thus raising the prices to make money out of desperation from the public.
“We have an abundance of fruits and vegetables in Fiji and at a time like this people would rely more on local produce than on imported vegetables, which tends to be more expensive,” Ms Kumar said. “Unfortunately, we have seen that the price of fruits and vegetables have gone up. Everyone is trying to take advantage of this situation. The farmers will make every effort to deliver their produce into the market and get the best price for it. “This is how things are, when there is uncertainty people try and make money out of it.”
Vendors at the Suva market said two weeks ago they were buying eggplants for $25 a bag, but this week the same bag was selling at $60.
Sundra Wati, a vendor for 12 years, said they had no choice but to buy the bag and then collect the cost from the consumer.
Sofia Talei, a vendor for 20 years, said farmers and suppliers used excuses like rain and bad weather to hike up prices.
Dhani Ram, a farmer and supplier from Valley Road in Sigatoka said their farm yield was poor and they were hiking prices to recover costs. The Minister for Agriculture, Mahendra Reddy, said there was no regulation of vegetable and fruit prices and most of it was demand driven.
No waiver on market fees in Suva
Meanwhile, market vendors in Suva will not be getting a waiver on market fees.
That’s because
Minister
Kumar learned that some of the vendors who were requesting a waiver amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis owned up to 20 tables.
Ms Kumar came to that conclusion after touring. She said there was a steady supply of vegetables and people were still shopping.
“It is quite interesting, the vendors are asking for the removal of stall fees, but they have more than 20 stalls,” she said.
“And now we are saying that if you cannot pay the stall fees please surrender the stalls, but don’t ask for a waiver of stall fees.
“You as a vendor have to reduce your operating costs and one way of doing that is giving up the stalls that you are not using but we can see when you move around in the market, the business is not slow, there are fruits and vegetables on each and every stall.”
Ms Kumar is adamant that the opening hours will remain, despite vendors arguing that there were some days when shoppers came early and they had to buy supplies from farmers.
Ms Kumar said the new opening hours were because of COVID-19. She said this was an extraordinary time needing extraordinary controls.
She said the Suva City Council will soon be announcing four new locations where vendors will be moved to.
Ms Kumar said the whole idea was to decentralise the market and this would cut down on the traffic into the market.
Hand sanitisers stolen?
When some in the country went into panic buying mode, one of the first things to go out of stock were hand sanitisers.
So it was no surprise to the Suva City Council and Ministry of Local Government when hand sanitisers installed at the Suva Bus Station were vandalised and stolen.
She said the hand sanitisers were put there so that people could clean their hands, one of the key things to do when trying to prevent COVID-19.
“We observed people. Some came with their small bottles and kept filling those and then came even a time when some people broke the sanitiser machines to take it home,” Ms Kumar said.
“It was an interesting experience, we saw people coming in and looking at the sanitiser. Some, after using the sanitiser, said where is the water we need to wash our hands.” Ms Kumar said people needed to take care of things that were provided to them for their own benefit.