COVID-19 Impact: Vegetable commission agents demand relaxation in night curfew
Ferozepur, April 23, 2021: Vegetable commission agents have demanded relaxation in curfew for few hours in the morning so that they could sell their products and also attend to their crops in the fields.
The night curfew in Punjab has affected the vegetable business which had just started picking up after relaxation of lockdown relaxations since vegetables and other products are transported only during the late hours to major markets in far-off places.
While the possibility of huge losses to the commission agents have increased, there has also been talking of a fall in the market fee for the government to buy and sell vegetables and fruits.
The sale and purchase of fruits and vegetables in the wholesale vegetable market have come down by 30 to 40 percent due to night curfew, said Ashok Kumar, President, Rinku Grover, Parmjit Singh Joshan.
Amarjit Singh, a farmer growing vegetables said earlier the sale of onion crops in the market was badly affected and now the night curfew imposed by the government after 8 pm has disheartened us and the commission agents as well and the night curfew will push them back to square one.
Demanding from the government to relax the night curfew regulation for movement of perishable commodities, they said, this will not only help the farmers in marketing their products but also ensure uninterrupted supply of vegetables and other perishable commodities to consumers in urban localities.
Only a slight modification in rules, pertaining to delivery of goods during the pandemic situation would be helpful to us otherwise in the event of less demand and down prices of the crops, the farmers will be left with no alternative to starting dumping the veggies facing huge losses, they added.