KOTA SAMARAHAN: With cases of flooding and constant rain this past week, raw food supplies are bound to be affected by this issue.
Whether it is fish, meat or vegetables, the availability of these raw food materials are scarce and customers are concerned by this.
The Sarawak Tribune conducted interviews with local hawkers at the wet market located in Bandar Riyal, here to further ask about their current situation, supply flow and customers’ turnout.
“I stocked my supplies before the Chinese New Year celebrations, so I had multiple stocks of fish in my inventory,” said 50-year-old fishmonger, Boriya Si Cho.
However, her suppliers would have a hard time getting fresh supplies of fish due to heavy weather at sea.
“They would hesitate to go to sea as waves are dangerous and rain falls heavily almost daily,” she added.
Adding to the issue of lack of fresh supplies, the number of her customers gradually decreased over the past few days.
“I haven’t seen a lot of customers these past few days, probably because of the flood and the constant rain.
“If this rain continues, I don’t know what will happen, plus I cannot keep raw fishes for that long”, she added.
James Gomes, a 47-year-old vegetable hawker echoes the same view as his vegetable supplies are low due to floods and constant rainfall.
With little to no sunlight, coupled with the rising water level in vegetable farms, certainly, vegetables could not withstand the dire situation let alone grow to a consumable rate.
“Many of my vegetable farms were submerged in water and most of my vegetables such as cucumbers, pumpkins and other vegetables that I would normally sell, cannot be put up for sale at this time”, he explained.
He added that his regular customers would often come and look for vegetables that were already affected by the flood.
“Sometimes I feel disappointed because I cannot satisfy my customers’ needs, they would go around my stall and would ask for a certain vegetable that I normally have, but at the time all I had was water spinach,” he said.
Gomes reminisced his days during the floods where daily vegetable supplies were moved by small boats, and he had to pay for the transportation fee which further affected his economy.
However, for 26-year-old pork seller, Olyvia Nicole Nexson, her pork supplies were plentiful before, during and after the flood.
She explained that her local suppliers were not affected by any flood cases, therefore she had never ran out of supplies.
“But if my supplies were to be affected by the flood, then I would have nothing to sell for I don’t have any backup plans,” she added.
As for customer turnouts, her customers were happy to see the supplies are in order without any sign of shortages.
But due to the weather where rain usually comes and goes, the number of her customers fluctuates depending on the time of the day and also depending on the current weather.
“For today, I would see more customers than yesterday, mainly because the weather is not that bad today, but no doubt if the rain continues, it would surely impact my earnings,” Olyvia added.
