THE Sigatoka Market Vendors Association says 80 per cent of its members have been affected by the decline in supply of fruit, vegetables and root crops caused by recent natural disasters.
President Deo Chand said some of the most productive farms were flooded two weeks ago.
“We were just starting to recover from the effects of Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston when the floods came and affected about 70 per cent of the farms,” Mr Chand said.
“Only 30 per cent escaped and this is where we are getting our supply from at the moment.”
Mr Chand said a bag of eggplant, which used to cost $10 before Severe TC Winston now costs $70 and a crate of papaya now cost vendors $70 compared with $20 two months ago.
“It isn’t only the supply, the quality of fresh produce we are getting now is also very poor,” he said. “Consumers will have to put up with it until supply normalises in about two months for short-term crops.”
He said accessing imported produce was proving difficult.
“We used to get some produce from overseas, but this has not come through because of the high demand from around the country,” Mr Chand said.
