A DOLYBONT fruit and vegetable producer claims he has been denied a stall in Aberystwyth’s Farmers’ Market, despite there being empty stalls recently.

Phil Turner-Wright said he has been refused a stall at the market for two years running and has questioned why the council allows traders from outside the local area to have stalls, but is rejecting a local producer.

He has also raised questions after it emerged that around half of the stalls at the market on 3 June didn’t have Food Hygiene Ratings displayed.

Mr Turner-Wright has been selling produce from his smallholding for four years and has a hygiene rating of 5 for his fruit and vegetables.

That has led to him questioning market organisers over how stall holders are agreed.

He said: “Last year I asked if I could sell my plants and later vegetables on a stall. I was informed that there were two stalls already selling similar produce and if I also had a stall I ‘would be reducing their profits’.

“I clearly found this astonishing, especially as the traders were from out of the immediate area and I thought the aim of the market was to attract as many growers as possible.

“I asked if there was an opportunity to get into the Farmers’ Market this year, only to be told that there were already three similar traders and that I could not be fitted in.”

Mr Turner-Wright questioned why traders from outside of the Ceredigion area were being given priority in terms of stalls, but said that he was then shocked when he visited the 3 June market and found that only just over half of the available stall pitches were being used.

A council spokesperson said many of the stall operators are Ceredigion-based.

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