Doha: Over 22,000 tonnes of vegetables and fruits have been sold during the 8th season (2019- 2020) at the local agricultural product yards, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has said.
The total sales of vegetables and fruits during all seasons since 2012 until now are 68,598 tonnes, the Ministry said in figures released recently on its website. The winter vegetable markets in Al Mazroua, Al Khor & Dakhira, and Al Wakrah have concluded 8th season which was for the first time its opening continued until the end of June.
The work at these markets was on all week days since the outbreak of coronavirus due to closure of the central market. The Ministry said that the total sales of vegetables of yards during the 2019-2020 season reached 16,035 tonnes, while in the previous season 7,288 tonnes of vegetables had been sold.
For the fruits, the total sales in 2019-20 season were 6,253 tonnes. The winter markets serve as platform for farmers to sell their products directly to the customers without middlemen, offering fresh vegetables and poultry products to the customers coming straight from the local farms at attractive prices.
The agricultural season this year is the largest due to remarkable growth in the production of vegetables which reached over 30 percent more this year compared to last year.
The winter vegetable markets opened for this season (2019/2020) in the beginning of November when the harvest of vegetables at local farms began. With regard to fish sales, the Ministry said that the total fish sales for the previous seasons had reached 736 tonnes, including 84 tonnes for 2019-20 season.
For cattle sales, the Ministry said that 75,033 heads had been sold including 14,341 heads sold in 2019-20 season, a significant increase compared to the previous season which saw 12,177 heads. Also 13,089kg of honey was sold during the previous seasons, including 3,598kg in 2019-20 season.
The winter vegetable markets offer a number of farm fresh local vegetables at competitive prices. Many types of vegetable were available at the winter vegetable markets including tomato, cucumber, zucchini, leafy vegetables, egg plants, pumpkins, sweet melon, water melon, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, mushroom and onions.
