(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Sanaullah Ataullah / The Peninsula
The winter vegetable markets drew huge crowd on the opening day as 80 local farms offered 26 varieties of fresh vegetable and fruits. More than 36 tonnes of vegetables and over 21 tonnes fruits were sold yesterday at markets opened at Al Mazrouah, Al Khor-Dhakhira and Al Wakrah, said the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
A total of 700kg of fish, 164 crates of egg and 196 hens were also traded. Ghadeer dairy farm sold 54 litres of milk at Al Wakrah market. The shelves in markets were filled with varieties of cucumbers, capsicums, zucchinis, pumpkins, eggplants, rocket leaves, spinach, sweet melon and watermelon.
'As many new farms joined the winter markets this year, so more products, including some organic, are expected to come to the markets this season, said Adel Al Kaldi, Assistant Head of Agricultural Affairs Department at the Ministry. Al Kaldi said the Ministry supports farmers to increase local produce by providing seeds, agricultural tools and equipment and consultancy. 'The Ministry is considering to open a winter market in Katara by January and a festival of agricultural produce at Souq Waqif, he added. 'The winter vegetable market at Al Mazrouh has separate outlets for fruits, livestock and fodders. The Social Development Center is offering traditional food at the Market, said Abdul Rahman Al Sulaiti, Supervisors of Winter Vegetables Markets.
Al Sulaiti said that a total of 34 farms are participating at Al Mazrouah, 24 farms at Al Khor and 22 farms at Al Wakrah. 'The markets will remain open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, he added.The markets attracted growing number of customers on first day, the traders told The Peninsula, adding that they acquired additional free spaces at their farms for cultivating vegetables and have set up more greenhouses that enabled them to offer more produce on the first day. Speaking on the prices of vegetables, the farmers said that the prices are lower at winter markets compared to other places and predicted that the prices of vegetables will go down further in coming days.
'By the end of December, many new products like tomato, cauliflower, cabbage will be ready for harvest, Mohamad Iqbal, a vendor at Al Mazrouh Market told The Peninsula. Today we offer a box of 7kg cucumbers at QR30, a box of pumpkin of same quantity at QR20, said Iqbal. We offer three types of eggplant-a box of 6kg at QR24 and a box of 3kg at QR15. A box of zucchini (commonly known as Kusa) is available at QR38 for 6kg and QR19 for 3kg. Seven bundles of rocket leaves are being traded at QR13 and the prices of green beans are QR24 for big box and QR12 for small one, he added.
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