Shops take on roadside fruit and vege traders

Long-standing resentment towards roadside fruit and vegetable sellers has erupted with retailers desperately trying to get them banned from one town.

Shopkeepers took their fight to the city council in Tauranga yesterday - but failed in a determined bid to get rid of the vendors.

Grievances were mainly centred on traditional retailers complaining they were commercially disadvantaged by the extremely low-cost trading conditions enjoyed by the street traders.

The two sides fronted off, despite knowing that the council was legally prohibited from taking competitive forces into account when it made a decision.

The council's powers were confined to deciding whether the traders were causing a nuisance or endangering public health and safety. The bylaw was not intended to regulate competition.

After listening to the street vendors taking flak from retailers, the council decided to stick to its street use bylaw provisions allowing trading in public places.

However, it will next year revisit a widely ignored rule in the street trader licences: that vendors are supposed to trade from one spot for no longer than half an hour.

Chris Michael, from Real Fresh in Hewletts Rd, complained that a little industry had sprung up of people buying their produce from Turners and Growers market and then parking on the side of the road and selling all day long.

"They are exploiting a situation provided by the bylaw to compete without any compliance with hygiene issues," he said.

Mr Michael said he regularly checked traders and had discovered breaches of the rules controlling signs, displaying produce on the ground, not moving on, urinating in bushes or buckets, and ignoring warnings from council staff by setting up in the same location the day after the complaint.

He also criticised the practice of the council in allowing street traders to start off with a clean slate whenever they renewed their annual $70 licences - regardless of whether they had breached the rules in the previous year.

He said the council had issued about 100 licences to sell goods from the side of the road.

Robin Neal, from Greerton Produce and Florists, said selling from the side of the road was a traffic safety issue.

He insisted that retailers were financially affected by the streetside traders, particularly over the summer stonefruit season.

"You would be surprised at their turnover," he said.

John Storie, an executive member of the New Zealand Fruit Retailers Association, complained that some licences were obtained from the council on the pretence of traders selling their own locally grown produce.

"I can guarantee you that 90 per cent of all produce sold by these vendors has been bought through the market system, and from growers locally and outside the Bay."

But stall holders dismissed accusations that they had poor health and hygiene standards, saying they had to abide by 22 conditions in their licence, including hot and cold running water.

David Osborne, a Hastings-based orchardist who sells his seconds-quality summerfruit along Papamoa Beach Rd, owned up to ignoring the rule in licences about moving on every 30 minutes.

Mr Osborne said it was never enforced because it was "stupid and dangerous".

Mark McCafferty said he had not seen a single accident in 12 years of trading. Selling from the roadside had been around for generations and there was a strong public demand.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES