JEDDAH, 19 June 2007 -- Vendors of the recently relocated livestock market are complaining that their sales have fallen so much due to the new market's more remote location they've resorted to selling animals form the back of trucks inside the city, a move officials say is illegal.
"We can't allow them to bring the livestock to the city and cause more public inconvenience," said Jeddah municipal spokesman Ahmad Al-Ghamdi.
The livestock market was moved out of the city in March to a new souk in the southern Al-Khomrah district. Residents around the old location have complained for years about bad smells and traffic.
As the city has grown, officials have decided it was time for the livestock to be zoned outside of the residential districts that have enveloped the market in recent decades.
The vendors have complained that the market is too far away and that the rent is higher, a double whammy they say has crippled sales.
Al-Ghamdi says that the city doesn't consider selling animals from the back of trucks throughout the city as a viable solution and officials say they will impound vehicles and animals and fine those caught in the act.
"In addition to the fine, the livestock owner will be charged 5 riyals per day per animal to cover the cost of feeding them," he said.
Safar Al-Hazmi, a livestock vendor at the souk, said his sales have suffered profoundly from the relocation. "We are suffering higher rent and lower demand," he said. "We have to send our sheep to the city to earn some money."
Al-Hazmi said that he used to pay SR3,000 a year for 100 square meters of space at the old market. He says he is paying SR10,000 for 70 square meters at the new market. "I'm being forced into financial ruin," he said.
Another vendor at the market, Mudayan Al-Harbi, echoed this sentiment when he defends his decision to drive his product to the customers who aren't willing to go the extra distance to the market anymore. "I started profiting from selling sheep in the city, but now the municipality is banning us from doing so. What choices do we have?"
While Al-Harbi admits the new market is cleaner and better organized, he says it won't make any difference if the vendors can't sell their product because of the distance from the customers.
"We've dropped our prices to attract customers, but this has only benefited the middlemen who buy the livestock to deliver to butchers in the city.
Livestock vendor Musbih Al-Thumami said that the only way he's been able to survive financially is by selling his animals from the back of a truck in the city. He says that in spite of the crackdown on the practice by municipal officials he will take his chances.
"I'll keep on doing it because it's the only way I can survive at this new location," he said.
By Hasan Hatrash
© Arab News 2007
