With peak season, local farms have started providing vegetables in large quantities to seasonal vegetable markets at very competitive prices, recording remarkable surge in the sale of vegetables.
The markets, called ‘Yard for Local Agricultural Produce’ sold 370 tonnes of vegetables last week, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Municipality yesterday.
The vegetable markets also traded about 60 tonnes of fruits, 116 kg locally-produced honey, 373 kg dates and 200 boxes of mushrooms during the period.
The five seasonal vegetable markets run by the Agricultural Affairs Department of the Ministry of Municipality are located in Al Mazrouah, Al Khor Al Zakhira, Al Wakrah, Al Shamal and Al Sheehaniya.
All five markets opened for 2022-23 season on November 3, operating from 7am to 2pm. Al Mazrouah, Al Khor Al Zakhira, and Al Wakrah markets work seven days a week, while Al Shamal and Al Sheehaniya markets open on weekends from Thursday to Saturday. As the harvesting season reaches its peak time, about 40 types of vegetables are available at the markets.
A representative of a farm participating in Al Mazrouah market told The Peninsula yesterday that he offered 18 types of vegetables from his farm alone in the market.
“The agriculture season of 2022-23 has reached its peak in Qatar as we have started harvesting all types of vegetables for marketing,” said Mohamad Iqbal, a vendor at Al Mazrouah market.
He said that the most of the vegetable produce has started coming from the farms because of the season such as tomato, cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, capsicum, pumpkin, zucchini, carrot and many leafy vegetables like spinach, coriander, and lettuce among others.
Speaking about the prices, Iqbal said that the prices of vegetable came down with higher supply because of the season. “Following the daily price bulletin, yesterday I sold a box of 7kg tomatoes for QR15 and a box of 6kg cucumbers for QR10 to QR15 as per the quality of the products,” said Iqbal.
He added that he sold yesterday about 300 boxes of different types of vegetables.
The markets provide marketing platform for local farmers enabling them to sell their products to consumers directly without any middlemen.
Prices of vegetables at the markets are lower compared to the daily bulletin prices because the famers receive free marketing services.
The agricultural produce displayed at the market is under strict monitoring to meet the standards and required health conditions like the produce should be free from pesticide residues and of high quality. The vegetable samples are being taken to the laboratory of the Ministry of Public Health to ensure the quality of the produce.
