MARKET vendors on the island of Taveuni say the stalls at the Naqara market needs to be upgraded.
Monika Balolai, a vendor of five years, said they started paying fees for their stalls to the district office three years ago.
"Yet nothing has been done about the condition of the stalls," she said.
"The common practice among vendors here is to cart in their produce every morning and at the end of the day we take back of our unsold produce.
"We have been requesting the DO's office to build proper booths for us and to include storage space so that we do not have to cart our produce every day. It is really tiring carting our produce to the market and back home everyday."
Fellow vendor Vasiti Nabiri said her vegetable garden had provided her with produce to sell at the market to support her three schoolchildren.
"The profit we make from the market depends on the customers we get per day," she said. "We can make a profit of between $300 and $400 a day and our customers regularly buy vegetables from the stall."
Divisional planning officer northern Alipate Bolalevu said the official market was at Waiyevo which the vendors had been told to use.
"However, the fact that customer numbers are concentrated in the shopping centre in Naqara has kept vendors operating from Naqara and there is not much space in Naqara for expansion."
He said the acting district officer Taveuni would look into the matter .