The cost of vegetables at the Ba Municipal Market in Fiji has increased as a result of the impact of the prolonged dry weather spell on fruit and vegetable farms across the Western Division.
Ba Market Vendors Association president Nitesh Prasad said sporadic showers experienced in the division recently had done little to revitalise vegetables, fruit and root crops.
"The prices are up because of the poor rainfall," he said.
"And this would be the norm at most markets in the Western Division.
"We had a bit of rainfall over the past two weeks, but it was not enough to make any real difference to our crops.
"We expect prices to normalise when rainfall increases. If there is rain over the December-January period than prices could come down around March or April next year."
Mr Prasad said unlike other municipal markets across the West, quite a large number of vendors at Ba were also farmers.
Source: fijitimes.com