The Malaysian Insight

AFTER suffering losses of up to 50% since reopening on Monday, traders at the Kuala Lumpur wholesale market in Selayang want everyone associated with the market to get vaccinated immediately to prevent business from being shut down again.

The market associations warned the situation was not getting better anytime soon as Covid-19 numbers kept increasing and urged traders, workers and essential market staff not to avoid immunisation.

They also urged the government to speed up the vaccination programme or the market could face their fourth lockdown since the onset of the pandemic.

The market is the biggest in the Klang Valley and the main supplier of seafood, vegetables and fruit to the smaller markets, supermarkets and restaurants.

Kuala Lumpur Hoi Seong Fish Wholesaler Association president Sing Kian Hock told The Malaysian Insight that since the start of the outbreak, 168 seafood traders had closed shop.  

“After the sanitisation work at the market only about 100 traders had returned. This is because we have shortage of workers as some of them are still undergoing quarantine, so they can’t open their stalls.

“Due to this outbreak we are experiencing losses of up to 50% in terms of sales and customers. Our only hope is to get vaccinated.

“We had a meeting with Health Ministry (MoH) officials last week and were told that they will try and help expedite the vaccination process,” Sing told The Malaysian Insight.

He said MoH officials had promised to arrange for the vaccination of workers at the market but no date has been set.

“There are more than 4,000 people in the whole wholesale market. We will submit the list and the officials will make the appropriate arrangements.”

He said that arrangements would be made for all those who tested negative for the virus to be vaccinated as soon as possible.

Sing added that starting from May 24, the wholesale market would only allow stall owners and wholesalers who have tested negative after May 15 to enter the market.

City Hall closed the market for eight days on May 9 after more than 400 traders and their workers tested positive for Covid-19. Further screening up till May 3 showed an average of eight to 10 new infections daily.

This is the third time the market had to close, after outbreaks in January 2021 and April 2020. Although the current outbreak occurred among fishmongers, it had spread to some vegetable and fruit vendors as well.

The market has 448 stalls employing more than 4,000 people, which include traders and workers.

Of this, 168 are seafood traders, 216 stalls sell vegetables while the remaining 64 are fruit stalls.

Sing said to prevent further outbreaks they have resorted to sanitising the market daily.

He also said due to the rapid spread of the virus in the market, businesses would conduct another round of polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) screening by May 23.

“The second round of screening is for everyone’s safety. Some of them may have been in the incubation period, so the second round of screening will be more accurate,” Sing said.

The vegetable vendors had also conducted rt-PCR screening last week and the number of confirmed cases increased from 43 to 59.

Meanwhile, the Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers’ Association president Wong Keng Fatt said their vendors had dropped their prices from 20% to 30%.

This, he said, was following the drop of about 20% in the number of customers coming to the market.

Wong said, customers are not only worried about the pandemic, but the movement restriction order also has an impact on their business.

“During this period, many night markets cannot be opened and restaurants can only provide takeaway services, so business volume will be affected.”

As for shortage of workers, he said they are afraid to return because of the high number of cases at the market.

“Workers are scared to return. We are also finding it difficult to get workers as we are only allowed to hire locals,” Wong added. – May 22, 2021.