New Melbourne Produce Markets - What a Fiasco!!

Of little relevance to the NT?  One would not think so, with mangoes, flowers, Asian vegetables, melons and other dry season produce all potentially sold or at least partially sold through one or more southern produce markets.

The Victorian government has been orchestrating a  move to a new market site at Epping, with planning and development occurring over the past few years.

But guess what? - the new market is smaller than the existing one at Footscray, the existing wholesalers will not fit, space is more cramped than the current site, the trading floor is significantly reduced and there is to be a ballot for locations.  This effectively reduces the number of wholesalers, and the group are very unhappy over the whole issue.  Some are expected to have to completely close.

The whole thing seems to be a bit of a shambles, according to some media reports.

Many wholesalers and the producers organisations are saying the job losses could exceed those recently announced at Ford.  Interestingly, the media seem to be ignoring this issue, with most of the noise in the specialist agricultural press and radio areas.

existing Melbourne Markets, Footscray