What a difference a market day makes

Today the ground displays and the shelves were laden with bananas and spinach and yams; they all looked fresher and healthier than usual but they were also more expensive, from the perspective of regular shoppers at the Roseau Market.

But what do you expect? This is was Market Day with a Difference, usually observed every year in Roseau on the last Saturday before Independence Day.

Market Day with a Difference, the organisers say, aims at highlighting the contributions of farmers and vendors to the development of the farming sector.

Delivering a speech this morning at the Roseau Market, Ian Douglas, the minister of trade highlighted the need for producers to maintain quality exports especially after the devastation of Tropical Storm Erika in 2015.

"We need to continue building back better the agricultural sector, to be resolute, to introduce good agricultural practices," Douglas said.

At a ceremony at the market this morning, DEXIA, the Dominica Export Import Agency and the Roseau Market Authority, the organisers of Market Day with a Difference, named winners of awards for their contribution to the development of the Roseau Market and to farming generally.

The award winners were:

Best Saturday vendor of fresh produce – Albertine Green

Best vendor's booth – Frances Francis

Best Snackette – Merlyn Boston

Best shop – Hazel Baptiste-Thomas

Most regular vendor – Margaret Baron,

Best mobile vendor – Emmanuel Pierre better known as 'Mano'

Best butcher – Samuel Pacquette

Youngest vendor – Kimberly Wade and

The oldest shop vendor – Philomen Joseph.

DEXIA says the winners will receive their awards at a subsequent ceremony.