Luke Rawalai
Nausori Market. Picture: FT FILE
About 500 Nausori market vendors claimed they lost more than $1.7 million after they were stopped from retrieving perishable items and selling them outside the market premises.
Nausori Market Vendors Association representative Kinisimere Gonerogo said they understood the need to close the facility for disinfection after positive COVID-19 cases were detected there but, she said, there was very little consultation conducted with vendors.
She said vendors spent more than $1000 a day to buy root crops and vegetables from the Sawani and Logani borders and also paid $160 per day in transportation costs.
Ms Gonerogo said on Wednesday last week, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces soldiers guarded the market and stopped them from retrieving perishable produce from their stalls.