Muscat: The Sultanate of Oman's key landmark and largest central vegetable and fruit market in Mawelah will relegate itself to history as the entire operation will be shifted to Khazaen Economic City from June 29. In its circular issued in May this year, Muscat Municipality stated that all wholesale trading activities of the Fruits and Vegetable Market Al Mawaleh Market will be permanently closed.
As per the timeline, between May 5 and June 9, the units for restaurants, cafes, sorting warehouses, dry stores, and commercial shops, wholesale market cold stores, central cold storage, onion sheds, potato sheds, and administrative offices will be handed over to the tenants.
The operation of the one-stop inspection platform is to commence on June 22, with the transfer of customs inspection and agricultural quarantine activities from Al Mawaleh Market to the SILAL Market at Khazaen Economic City.
Speaking to the Observer, an executive of Suhool al Fayha, one of the leading trading companies, said that this Friday will be the last day for trading activity at the Mawelah market, and already the authorities and businesses have started winding up activities at the current site.
Suhool al Fayha, which is one of the largest wholesale traders at Mawelah, has started the process of shifting its operations fully to Khazaen by Saturday.
The circular added that the lessees of the cold stores (wholesale market building/central cold storage) will receive an additional reduction in rental value for the first contract year, along with an extended exemption period from rent, provided the contract is signed before May 20.
While many traders and their staff of various nationalities have been operating in harmony since 1997, time has come to move to the new location to meet the growing footfall of customers and changing requirements such as more cold storage and air-conditioned halls for retailers and customers from various parts of the country.
Hamed Saeed Salem al Hajari, Manager of the Central Market, earlier told the Observer, "The current market has been growing every year with more facilities, and we have products from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, and not to forget the growing presence of Omani agricultural produce. Shifting to Khazaen Economic City will help it expand with better facilities."
Abdul Vahid, Managing Director, Suhool al Fayha, one of the leading wholesalers at the market, said, "The market opened in 1987 but closed soon after to reopen in 1997 and was operational full-fledged by 2000. Initially, 90 percent of the products were imported via neighboring countries, but today 90 percent of our products are directly imported from different countries, with around 400 export-importers operating at the market."
According to sources, the new market will have facilities such as cold and dry stores, main wholesale halls, truck sales areas, shaded areas for sorting and sale of onions and potatoes, agricultural inspection areas, office spaces for operating companies, forklift servicing, electrical charging stations, vegetable and fruit sorting yards, several gates for customs inspection for vegetables and fruit, and a laboratory for testing agricultural samples under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources.
Some of the regular customers in the market welcomed the move to shift to a new location with better amenities, but they were concerned about its distance from the capital city. "I cannot imagine travelling all the way to Khazaen from Ruwi to buy a few kilogrammes of vegetables and fruits, but this place is more accessible to residents of the fast-growing townships in South Batinah and Mabela. With better storage facilities, food brought to the city from new facilities will also be of high quality."
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