Market vendors in Tavua claim the prolonged drought could soon affect vegetable sales.
Tavua Market Vendors Association president Abdul Azim said this was a major worry for most permanent vendors during this period.
He said if the dry season continued, most vendors would lose out because of the shortage of vegetables to sell at the market.
“The drought has affected us in terms of income and we have slowly felt the low vegetable supply as a result of this,” Mr Azim said.
“We are worried that if this continues, a number of our vendors will be affected because most of them sell vegetables.
“We cannot increase the prices of vegetables because we have not been earning much from the current market sales as a result of the pandemic.”
Mr Azim said they hoped the dry season would end soon so their sales would not nosedive as most vendors had already been affected by the health crisis.
“We managed to make some profit when the government cash assistance rolled out.
“We have also taken to relevant authorities issues surrounding farmers selling on the pavement which has affected our sales.
“We have been given assurance that once borders lift, the opening hours will revert to 7pm.”
