Suva Municipal Market vendor Krishan Kumar had to sell about $1000 worth of watermelon at half the usual price from his stall on Friday before the four-day lockdown.
While speaking to this newspaper yesterday he said if he was not able to sell all his produce he would eventually have to throw it away.
“For now I have $1000 worth of produce left to sell, if we get a loss this once it’s not a problem, there is nothing else we can do,” he said.
Mr Kumar who is also the general secretary of the Suva United Market Vendors Association, said he had two staff members that were helping them.
He said he was not going to make a profit from all the sales he was carrying out throughout the day because he had reduced the prices of his stock in order to get people to buy them.
“We are getting sales today but it’s all selling at half price because we have to sell it at a cheaper price because if we don’t than we would have to throw it all away.
“For now with this virus going around we need to just take care of our health because this is a global pandemic, we have to manage somehow, we have to follow what the Government is telling us.”
Mr Kumar said they would stay back until 6pm to try and sell what they could before heading back home.
Once the lockdown was lifted he said he would have to buy new stock of produce.
Mr Kumar has been a market vendor for 50 years spending around 20 years in the Suva Municipal market and 30 years in the Lautoka market.
