SIGATOKA’s close proximity to the famous Salad Bowl commands an abundance and variety of fruit and vegetables, but like other towns around the country, its market vendors also capitalise on seasonal food.
This includes a stock up of guava and Hawaiian pawpaw, a prevalent feature on many stall tops.
“We mostly buy food from middlemen before spending the week at the market, but fruit like guava is easy to pick from the village,” said Mere Volai.
She was among a group of more than 10 women from Nawamagi Village in the tikina of Conua.
She said the season for such fruits usually stretched from February to May.
“We get good sales from guava and food is also supplied to hotels sometimes.”
She said the native asparagus known as duruka, which had sprung up on many dinner plates, only entered their municipal market last week from Valley Rd.
Nadeva farmer Navin Nilesh Kumar said favourites such as avocado and watermelon were slowly fading out of season, though many welcomed duruka.
“We are getting duruka from Naitasiri at $5 per bundle and sell them for $6 to $7 a bundle because they are not really seasonal yet in Valley Rd,” he said.
“Everything grows but people need to work too when certain food are off-season, whether its rains or not.”
Middleman Nilesh Prasad, more commonly known as Bobby, said mandarins were also a hot favourite with consumers. He said the scarcity of certain vegetables had also caused a price increase.
“It’s hard to get Chinese and English cabbage, coriander and tomatoes,” he said, adding that English cabbage cost him $7 per kilogram.
