No greens from Highlands on Saturdays

No greens from Highlands on Saturdays
Wednesday August 6, 2008
By Clara Chooi

VEGETABLES from Cameron Highlands are no longer available at the Selayang wholesale market on Saturdays.

This is because the Cameron Highlands Vegetable Transport Association has temporarily stopped transporting vegetables to the market since mid-July.

Other smaller markets in Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are also affected by the move.

“Saturday has always been considered our only day off in the week.

“Despite that, we still transported the vegetables from Cameron Highlands every Saturday in the past,” association president Lau Sai Hoong said recently.

He added that members of the association were finding it hard to cope with the additional costs since the fuel price increase two months ago.

“We have been trying to negotiate with the Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association for a higher payment but we were unable to come to an agreement,” Lau said.

In comparison, wholesalers in Ipoh and Singapore had already accepted the new prices charged by the transporters and agreed to the Saturday off-day, he said.

Lau said previously, the transportation cost for vegetables sent to the Selayang market was 10sen per kg of vegetables, while that for vegetables sent to Ipoh and Singapore was six sen and 22 sen respectively.

“Now, wholesalers in Ipoh have agreed to pay 10 sen per kg and those in Singapore, 30 sen,” he said, adding that they had been trying to negotiate with the KL association for a price of 15 sen per kg but the latter had only agreed to 13 sen.

Lau said there were about 40 members in his association, each of whom owned between two and seven lorries.

He said on average, 5,000kg of vegetables were transported from Cameron Highlands daily.

“From Sundays to Fridays, about 50 lorries will transport the vegetables and on Saturdays, about 20 lorries would hit the roads in the past.

“Now, however, we will only transport the vegetables from Sundays to Fridays. Saturday is our off-day,” said Lau.

He added that market-goers should avoid buying vegetables from the Selayang market on Saturdays, as the prices would definitely be higher.