Thirty casual market vendors are benefitting from Savusavu Town Council’s initiative to support residents who need market space.

Council chief executive officer, Seema Dutt, said they understood the challenges people faced to earn a living during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Dutt said they began providing new vendors with a place to operate in September last year.

She said in the initial stages, they received a reasonable number of applications from vegetable and handicraft vendors for a stall.

After which, 30 genuine recipients were granted casual market vendor status.

Equal opportunities

Ms Dutt said the initiative was focused on providing equal opportunities to Savusavu residents to operate their businesses and earn an income during this pandemic.

The current temporary market can cater for about 250 vendors and Ms Dutt said they were using tents to accommodate the new casual vendors.

They remained hopeful that once the Savusavu Municipal Market was constructed, more vendors would be provided similar opportunities.

“Despite the challenges we face at the temporary market, especially during the rainy season, our vendors have sacrificed and overcome these obstacles to continue operating from the premises,” she said.

Ms Dutt added COVID safe protocols remain vital in ensuring market operations are not affected in any way.

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