One of the most exciting aspects of being a market vendor is to attract customers to your tables to buy your products.

In these rough economic times, many of the market vendors are looking for ways to earn extra income.

For 38-year-old and father of four Waisea Makulau, he has been a market vendor at the Labasa Market for seven years.

He is a farmer and plants all he is selling.

“My products are fresh from the farm,” he said.

According to Mr Makulau he plants for the family but sells at the market to help his wife who is a civil servant and the family.

He said he tried out selling food crops at the market and when he was making profit he bought a table and now was a permanent market vendor.

Mr Makulau sells dalo, cassava, kumala and vegetables, all from the farm. For his prices he said they were affordable to established customers and was glad to see new customers visiting his table.

He said the competition was tough especially when they were selling the same products but he was able to survive.

In a week his profit ranges from $80 – $100.

For the money he gets from the market he pays for his children’s education needs and thanked the Government for its Free Education policy.

Without this policy he said education fees would be unaffordable to many Fijians.

“I have four children, three attend primary school while is a kindergarten student.

He said life was tough for his family when the mother was the sole breadwinner but things turned around when he became a market vendor at the Labasa Market.

Mr Makulau is urging the unemployed youths and fathers to make use of their land to farm and sell at the market and change their life style.