The Farmers' Association, the Gozitano Cooperative and the Central Farmers' Cooperative are scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the opening hours at the vegetable market at Ta' Qali.

The government had proposed that the market starts opening daily instead of Mondays and Thursdays, as at present.

This proposal had originally been welcomed by farmers but after resistance by two middlemen, certain producer organisations started questioning the suggestion.

The government then proposed that the market should continue opening on Mondays and Thursdays with the growers taking their produce to the market at 11.30 a.m. instead of 1.30 p.m.

A Rural Affairs Ministry spokesman said when contacted that the majority of farmers wanted to go to the market as early as possible but there were a lot of objections to the government's proposal from other parties.

So the department has now left it up to the stakeholders to meet, submit proposals and reach an agreement.

It was clear there were a lot of personal interests and conflicts so it was difficult for an agreement to be reached in a short time, the spokesman said.

Unless an agreement was reached, the government would have to find a solution to benefit all parties, including consumers, he added.