Mumbai wholesale market opens on Wednesday

PUNE: Mumbai’s main wholesale market for vegetables, fruits and spices will reopen on April 15 with adequate precautions and steps to address the grievances of traders, a top official said after a meeting of traders, government officials and police chiefs of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane took place on Sunday.

“We had called a meeting of all the stakeholders today (Sunday). It was attended by traders, labour leaders and police officials to resolve the issues being faced by the market functionaries,” Maharashtra’s principal secretary (agricultural marketing) Anoop Kumar told ET.

Grain traders, who had decided to shut down indefinitely from Monday, said they would reopen as soon as their issues were resolved. Vegetable traders were also optimistic that their grievances such as police harassment would be redressed soon.


The market was shut down on Saturday after a spice trader in the Masala Market tested positive for Covid-19, which created panic among workers and traders, and prompted authorities of APMC-Vashi, to order the shut down. Grain traders had decided to shut down the market indefinitely from Monday.

“Traders and labour representatives will meet again on Monday to fine-tune details of starting work again while taking care of everyone’s safety,” said labour leader and MLC Narendra Patil, who attended the meeting.

Grains market representative Nilesh Veera told ET that traders have decided to work out a strategy to address concerns raised by labourers. The main grievance of traders everywhere was police harassment, Veera said, pointing out that police have been confiscating vehicles that are on road after 4 pm.