Doha: The winter vegetable markets at Al Mazroua, Al Khor-Dakhira, Al Wakra and Al Shamal operating under Agricultural Affairs Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment have achieved high sales which reached 434 tonnes of local vegetables and fruits.
These brisk sales were made during three-day period from December 20 to 22. The General Supervisor of farmers’ winter markets, Abdurrahman Al Sulaiti, said that the winter markets since they were opened nine weeks ago had witnessed increase in sales every week.
“The kinds and quantities of vegetables also increased in the markets such as tomatoes and others and the footfall of customers also increased manifold,” Al Sulaiti said while talking to The Peninsula.
The winter markets serve as a platform for farmers to sell their products directly to the customers without middlemen, offering fresh vegetables and poultry products coming straight from the local farms to customers at economical prices.
The sales of fish during the same period was 3,750 kg. Also, about 687 cartons of eggs, 2,700 poultry birds, 277 kg of milk and 116 kg of honey were sold.
The four winter markets also sold 385 heads of sheep and goats, among them 327 heads were slaughtered in Al Mazroua yard. Also, 7,269 barley boxes and 154 different varieties of feed were also sold.
The aim of the winter markets is to support Qatari farmers by reducing their marketing costs, stimulating local production, and encouraging small farms to redouble efforts to become more active.
Al Sulaiti said that the preparation for opening Al Shahaniya Winter Market is underway and expected to be opened next month.
The winter vegetable markets offer varieties of vegetables in large quantity directly from local farms at lower prices. Winter vegetable markets have become highly popular among residents as over 1.2 million boxes of vegetables were sold in 2017 compared to over 4 million boxes of vegetables sold from 2012 to 2017.
