Market days popular with bargain hunters

Whangarei's Growers Market has seen an upsurge in buyers as the recession bites into budgets.

Whangarei people have been racing their trolleys past the greens' section of the supermarket lately and going to the market instead for cheaper produce, growers market manager Robert Bradley said.

 Compared  with this time last year, two to four extra pallets of produce a week are being sold.

"The prices of greens have been high in supermarkets the last couple of weeks and a whole lot of new people have been turning up to the market looking for value for money," he said.

The popular vegetables being sold at the market are cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach.

Arshad Mohammed a Growers Market vegetable stall holder said he has been doing "very well", selling more than usual.

"The green veges have been very popular," he said.

According to Mr Bradley the vegetable stall holders had problems in June with all the frosts - Mr Mohammed lost a  crop of lettuce to it - but  recent weather  has been fantastic.

 Mr Bradley said
 the recession had not affected the market at all and if anything, made it stronger.

"We get a huge range of people - a real melting pot. It's done a lot for cohesion in Whangarei, all sections of society are there because there's such a huge range of stalls and people love to support what's made and grown in Whangarei."