The fifth season of the local farm produce markets began on Thursday at the Al Mazrouah, Al Khor-Al Zakhira and Al Wakrah yards, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment said in a statement.

The yards for selling local vegetables, fish and poultry will be open to customers thrice a week - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - from 7am until 5pm. The yard for selling livestock at Al Mazrouah will remain open throughout the week, from 7am until 5pm. Some 80 farms are participating in the initiative.
Abdul Rahman al-Sulaiti, general superviser, said the yards witnessed a good turnout of visitors on the first day and a wide variety of fresh vegetables was on offer. He stressed that the yards offered fruits and vegetables at "competitive rates" - lower than those at the central market - due to the absence of any intermediary between the farmer and the merchant. Also, the MME supervised the prices of different products and monitored transactions to ensure compliance with the rates advertised. The fifth season will also see the opening of two new yards at Muaither and Ruwais, the statement noted.