Farmers unhappy over relocation at Princes Town Market

Sto­ries by Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­[email protected]

Farm­ers and ven­dors at the Princes Town Mar­ket are di­vid­ed over a de­ci­sion to move farm­ers from their usu­al sell­ing area out­side the mar­ket in­to the main mar­ket build­ing.

Farm­ers com­plained yes­ter­day that mu­nic­i­pal po­lice and of­fi­cials of the Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion moved them from an open area com­mon­ly known as the Farm­ers Mar­ket in­to the mar­ket build­ing, where veg­etable goods are sold by ven­dors.

They com­plained that for more than 20 years the Farm­ers Mar­ket had op­er­at­ed at the back of the mar­ket build­ing.

Farmer Lin­coln Ba­boolal com­plained that they were not giv­en pri­or no­tice about the move, not­ing that the cor­po­ra­tion had on­ly re­cent­ly built a shed to pro­vide shel­ter for them.

“We now get this shed and they re­move me and put me in­side the mar­ket. The mar­ket you could fall down and dead. The mar­ket heat­ed in­side of there, and it have no ac­cess around the mar­ket to drop off any goods.”

He com­plained that the stalls with­in the mar­ket build­ing were too small and the space too cramped to ac­com­mo­date their goods.

“That is un­fair. We are not reg­u­lar sell­ing. We sell just one day—a Sun­day, for five or six hours.”

An­oth­er farmer, Ter­rence Daniel, com­plained that it was al­so dif­fi­cult to get their goods in­to the build­ing. He ad­mit­ted that his sales were not af­fect­ed, but said the stalls in­side the mar­ket were small.

“It con­gest­ed be­cause the stall is more small­er than out­side. We have more ac­cess and more free­dom out­side,” he said, adding, “When you have to tote goods in­side of there, it’s very dif­fi­cult.”

He said the cor­po­ra­tion ought to be more un­der­stand­ing of the farm­ers’ plight.

“We are the back­bone feed­ing the na­tion and when you sti­fling we in­side of there now, what are you do­ing? You are killing every­thing. The whole econ­o­my, every­thing.”

How­ev­er, Kessyann Boo­choon, who has been sell­ing in­side the mar­ket for more than 20 years, wel­comed the move.

She com­plained that farm­ers sell pro­duce which she and oth­er ven­dors sell in the mar­ket, tak­ing away their sales.

She said they al­so have to com­pete with road­side ven­dors.

“They need to come in the mar­ket. Let every­body sell. Let the cus­tomers have op­tions to walk in and shop around by every­body.”

“They say­ing they are farm­ers and they are not farm­ers. Yes, they may be plant­i­ng one or two things. But they are buy­ing just like us and sell­ing back out­side here. So it is un­fair.”

Mean­while, fruit ven­dor Sub­ash Ali, who sells in the Fruit Mar­ket, a sep­a­rate build­ing op­po­site the main mar­ket, com­plained that he is los­ing thou­sands of dol­lars be­cause of com­pe­ti­tion from oth­er mar­ket and road­side ven­dors.

He ex­plained, “They built two sides of the mar­ket. One side was sup­posed to sell veg­eta­bles alone and the oth­er side fruits. Now they are al­low­ing peo­ple in the veg­etable side to sell fruits. No­body is com­ing in the fruit mar­ket to buy. Since they build over the mar­ket, every­body think­ing the mar­ket is closed on that (fruit) side.”

The fa­ther of three added, “It’s two weeks now we keep throw­ing away we pro­duce, we goods.”

Ali al­so dis­agreed with the farm­ers be­ing re­lo­cat­ed in­side the build­ing.

Mean­while, in an­oth­er sec­tion of the veg­etable mar­ket, fish ven­dors com­plained about the de­plorable con­di­tions un­der which they ply their trade.

Ter­ry Ra­goo said the mar­ket was closed for a month for re­pairs, which in­clud­ed re­pair­ing their chiller, which had been non-func­tion­al for three years.

How­ev­er, he said on­ly the lights were re­paired.

With the chiller not work­ing, he said they have to spend $240 per week on ice.

“All the stalls them, all the tiles falling off in the back there. The AC not work­ing, glass (win­dows) break and they not even send­ing any­body to do clean­ing, they just wash­ing it down with wa­ter.”

He ques­tioned what the mon­ey was spent on.

Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Gowrie Roop­nar­ine, how­ev­er, said the farm­ers were in­formed a month ago that they would be moved in­to the main build­ing.

He said the de­ci­sion was based on com­plaints by ven­dors sell­ing in­side the mar­ket about Sun­day morn­ing farm­ers be­ing al­lowed to sell out­side the mar­ket, re­sult­ing in cus­tomers not buy­ing in­side the mar­ket.

The chair­man said there were suf­fi­cient stalls in­side the mar­ket to ac­com­mo­date the Sun­day morn­ing farm­ers.

“I know be­ing the first day some ven­dors may have con­cerns but I do be­lieve that this will work in the best in­ter­est for every­one be­cause mem­bers of the pub­lic who shop at the Princes Town Mar­ket will have a bet­ter op­por­tu­ni­ty to pur­chase be­cause all the ven­dors will be in one area.”

He said they would mon­i­tor the new arrange­ment and meet with the ven­dors in due course.

On the is­sue of the re­pairs, he said they had to rewire the en­tire build­ing where the main mar­ket is housed.

“At our next fi­nan­cial year when we get an al­lo­ca­tion for the mar­ket, I will be meet­ing with the ven­dors to pri­or­i­tize what we should do first and def­i­nite­ly we will be im­prov­ing the best that we can with the al­lo­ca­tion that comes to the cor­po­ra­tion.”

He al­so as­sured that they would be crack­ing down on road­side vend­ing.