It has been a mixed year for New Covent Garden Market with turnover at the London-based wholesale market in decline.
Total market turnover reached £590 million, down 2.3 per cent on the previous year, for the financial year ending 31 March 2013. In comparison, turnover stood at £604m for the financial year ending 31 March 2012.
Jan Lloyd, chief executive of the Covent Garden Market Authority, insisted thatit had been a positive year for the market citing progress on its ongoing redevelopment plans.
She told FPJ: 'In 2012/13 we reached another significant milestone in our plans for redeveloping New Covent Garden Market with the signing of a development agreement with our preferred development partner, VINCI St. Modwen.
'I would also like to record our thanks for the substantial contribution made by Brenda Dean, who stood down as chairman in January 2013. We welcome her successor, Pam Alexander, in her new role as chair of Covent Garden Market Authority.'
Furthermore, the market's total occupancy rate in trading areas rose to 88 per cent over the year, with the core fruit and vegetable market now representing 96 per cent of trade. Meanwhile, total income for the Covent Garden Market Authority increased by nine per cent.
Farming minister David Heath exclusively told FPJ, back in May, that DEFRA wants to improve the government-run market over the coming years.
He said: “We now have an opportunity to produce something that is more focused and better equipped to become a real centre of excellence for both fruit and vegetables and the flower market.
'At the moment we don’t use the land efficiently enough at New CoventGarden Market so we have been having a lot of discussions so we can accommodate all the wholesalers at the new site sensibly.I don’t just want a new forward-thinking market but one that ends up as a internationally recognised focal point for the British food industry.”
