A number of middlemen were refused entry to the pitkali vegetable market this morning for not submitting a bank guarantee in line with new regulations.

The middlemen have been resisting the introduction of the financial requirement, but a court found against them earlier this week.

The requirement obliges middlemen to fork out 10 per cent of their annual turnover misunderstood the very nature of their role between the farmer and the buyer.

The Secretariat for Rural Affairs says the bank guarantee is needed to ensure that farmers are paid on time for their produce.

But the middlemen are arguing that the guarantee should not be on their turnover but on their commission. They said their commission was eight per cent and the guarantee they were being requested to fork out was higher than their earnings.

Five of around 15 middlemen have paid the guarantee. They were allowed in this morning but the others were locked out with the help of the market's security men and additional policemen.

"We were treated like criminals," they said.

They complained that this morning, the paying middlemen took their allotted place abusively.

Addressing a news conference, their lawyer, Adrian Delia, said it was not fair for the Agriculture Department to ask the middlemen for a guarantee on money which was not their own.

He said they would be challenging the legal notice in court.

In a statement this afternoon, the government said operations at the market were not affected as a substantial number of middlemen opted to act according to law and submitted the guarantee.

Although the government was willing to discuss with everyone, it could not accept the law to be broken.

The government said it was committed to continue with reforms at the market to guarantee transparency and accountability towards farmers, consumers and the middlemen themselves.

See also here.