Chhimi Dema 

A team of seven officials formed a committee on January 17 to sell the farm produce from the Centenary Farmers’ Market (CFM).

The team, consisting of officials from the CFM management, Department of Agriculture and Marketing Cooperatives, representatives of vegetable vendors, and de-suups, was formed as per the instruction from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests to ensure that the highly perishable farm produce do not go to waste.

Of the different varieties of vegetables in the CFM, the committee identified seven highly perishable products such as mushrooms, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, coriander, spring onions, and garlic scapes, for supply.




CFM’s manager, Tshering Tenzin, said that the team supplied vegetables to frontline workers’ kitchen and quarantine facilities, and created a stock inventory for the highly perishable produce at CFM up to yesterday.

He said there is demand for the product in the zones in Thimphu and the committee is working towards supplying it. “We are waiting for direction from the ministry.”

Meanwhile, a vendor at CFM said that she was worried about the produce rotting.

She said that many vendors brought produce on the evening of January 15, hoping to sell them on January 16, but they could not because of the blackout.




The vendor hopes that the situation resumes to normal before the produce goes bad. “Our highly perishable produce are taken care of, but we worry about how the committee will manage the rest of the produce if the blackout extends.”

Tshering Tenzin said the sale of other produce depends on blackout restrictions.

He said that the quantity of the vegetables in the market would be enough for one or two days. “The ministry is ready to facilitate the import of the required vegetables.”