For several months now, the Vegetable Pavilion of the Central Market has been reopened to visitors. It was promised that traders of vegetables and fruits would soon at least partially return there, however, the pavilion still mainly sells industrial goods, reports TV3 News.
"We are here temporarily, as far as I understand, how long this will last — I don't know, but it is not expected that we will stay here for long, this whole company. We ourselves don't really know how everything will be, because the market seems to have beautiful plans, a perspective, but how exactly this will change and in what time frame — I can't say," said seller Sandra.
In turn, Laura says: "As long as we are still here, well, time will tell, but for now — they promise, they promise that the traders will return, so let's hope for the best, and everything will be fine."
Riga's Vice Mayor Edward Ratnieks (National Alliance) publicly promised back in September of last year that within a month, traders of vegetables and fruits would at least partially return to the Vegetable Pavilion.
"I certainly express regret that Rīgas nami could not implement this part. The Central Market explained to me that they offered traders to move — vegetable traders, but they preferred to keep their current places, as they already have a clientele, and the places are familiar," he noted.
The company Rīgas nami also confirmed that at least those vegetable traders who were offered to return to the pavilion have currently decided not to do so. At the same time, the enterprise acknowledges that the main problem was communication — both the public and the traders themselves needed clearer explanations of what exactly is changing in the pavilion and why.
Board member of Rīgas nami Kaspars Kociņš explained:
"The fact that there are industrial goods there now is a natural process. We started the renovation of the dairy pavilion, or the first pavilion where they used to be, then we temporarily moved them to the vegetable pavilion. But they won't stay there long either, because this pavilion is a so-called rotational one. The next object in our plans is the fish pavilion, which is nearby, and in 2027, fish will be temporarily moved to this pavilion. Rationally speaking, the fish pavilion has some functions of the vegetable one, and they will be temporarily placed here together while the fish pavilion is being renovated, so that later the fish can return back."
It is planned that all historical functions of the pavilions will be restored by 2029. An open design competition for the development of a new design for the Central Market is also planned to be announced soon.
