JEDDAH — Traders have accused some members of the special committee for nationalizing jobs in Jeddah's central fruit and vegetable market of preventing expatriates from buying and said this was illegal. According to the traders, expatriates were only banned from selling at the stalls in the market but not from taking part on behalf of traders in the early morning auction for the wholesale purchase of fruit and vegetables. Chairman of the traders' committee, Saheem Al-Ghamdi, said the Saudization committee has used the help of secret police to prevent expatriate workers from selling fruit and vegetables and also from buying them when they arrive on trucks in the wee hours of the morning. He said, as a result, the market lost more than SR4 million in just two days. Al-Ghamdi said they were attempting for more than a month to meet with the officials of the municipality, the labor office and the ministries of commerce and agriculture to discuss the matter but to no avail. "We wanted to lay down a crystal-clear policy for the Saudization of jobs in the vegetable market and to organize the process of selling and buying but they were not responsive and did not want to meet with us," he said. Al-Ghamdi said the traders appointed representatives who met with the concerned municipality officials on Sunday to find a solution to the problem. "The municipality promised to resolve the problem but nothing has happened so far," he added. The municipality, on its part, denied issuing any decision limiting wholesale buying of fruits and vegetables to Saudis alone. Director of the municipality's department of markets Nasser Al-Jarallah said no decision was taken preventing expatriate workers from buying the fruits and vegetables at the daily auctions. "The market is open for all. Legal expatriates can freely sell and buy in the central fruit and vegetables market," he said. He refuted reports that the market was full of trucks loaded with fruit and vegetables waiting for long hours but said some traders refused to unload their trucks.
