A lack of understanding of fresh produce supply chains at local government level could shrink the already consolidated UK wholesale market trade further, according to market leaders.
Industry representatives have called for markets to be pushed up the agenda of local councils as the crisis at Birmingham market deepened this month.
A campaign has been launched by the Birmingham Mail to save the market, which will leave its Pershore Street site by 2013. But there is no new site earmarked and plans to move to a site in Aston scrapped last month.
A petition, run by the Outdoor Market Traders’ Association, aims to gain 100,000 signatures so the issue can be raised in the houses of parliament.
Joe Harrison, CEO of the National Market Traders Federation, fears the imminent Localism Bill could have a detrimental effect on markets.
“I do not think the public are fully aware of the whole chain and how the wholesale market is a lifeline for traders in Birmingham. The Localism Bill could have a detrimental impact. I think Westminster understands the supply chain through the all-party parliamentary group but there is still a lack of understanding at local level,” he told FPJ.
Krys Zasada, policy development manager at the National Association of British Market Authorities, said public ownership of wholesale markets has fallen as a long-term trend and that it is difficult for markets to show to councils the community and sustainability-related benefits of market redevelopments alongside the hard economics of the large-scale plans.
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