20 years at the marketplace
IN the middle of the busy Suva Municipal Market sits a man named Arun Chand who has been selling his fresh produce for almost 20 years.
Originally from Suva, the 42-year-old lives by himself at his home in Tuirara, Makoi.
Mr Chand plants most of the vegetables he sells at the Suva market and also buys from farmers who turn up at the carrier stand every morning.
He starts his day at 7am every Mondays to Fridays and finishes around 5pm, but on Saturdays he starts from 6am up till 5:30pm in the afternoons.
“I would wake up early in the morning and make sure that the produce I take to the market are all ready to go,” he said.
The vegetables he normally sells at the Suva market are; cabbages, rourou, tomatoes, tubua, ginger and turmeric. He also sells root crops such as dalo and cassava.
He spends around $30 to $40 per sack of vegetables from farmers that he would buy from, and the rest he gets from his backyard garden.
He plants most vegetables that he takes to the market to sell. In a week Mr Chand would earn about $200 or more from all his sales.
There are times when he would have no customers at all, but this does not discourage him from turning up at the market stall. He shared his experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, and said that it wasn’t a pleasant time for the business as less customers turned up.
One of the challenging times he shared was during the cyclone season.
Mr Chand recalled that during the last cyclone it was a tough time for him as farmers did not turn up with their produce and all his vegetables planted in his backyard was destroyed.
Despite the challenges and circumstances that comes his way, he has been able to be independent to this day and would not rely on anyone.
“If I can pay my bills and be happy, I will not stop selling at the market,” he says.
Mr Chand also has brothers who help him at times in bringing the vegetables and root crops over to the Suva market.
He enjoys selling at the Suva market as it is his only income and also his bread and butter.