Street vendors protest outside Armenian government
04.02.2019,
15:23
Street vendors protested today outside the Armenian government building demanding that a municipality decision banning illegal street trade be reversed.
YEREVAN, February 4. /ARKA/. Street vendors protested today outside the Armenian government building demanding that a municipality decision banning illegal street trade be reversed.
Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan banned street trading from January 1. Speaking to reporters in late December he admitted that the problem was two-sided. On the one hand, citizens demand that street trading be banned, on the other hand street vendors, selling mostly fruits and vegetables, argue that this is their sole source of income and if they are driven from streets they will be unable to keep their families.
The participants of the protest today claimed they are forced to trade on the streets, because the trade volumes in the farmers’ markets are so small that the products they buy spoil causing losses worth tens of thousands of drams.
According to one of the protesters, Karen Dadoyan, large merchants working in the farmers’ markets buy and sell products worth 500 thousand - 1 million drams each day, while small traders barely make ends meet. "We have no financial opportunity to enter the market with large quantities of goods," he said. -0-
Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan banned street trading from January 1. Speaking to reporters in late December he admitted that the problem was two-sided. On the one hand, citizens demand that street trading be banned, on the other hand street vendors, selling mostly fruits and vegetables, argue that this is their sole source of income and if they are driven from streets they will be unable to keep their families.
The participants of the protest today claimed they are forced to trade on the streets, because the trade volumes in the farmers’ markets are so small that the products they buy spoil causing losses worth tens of thousands of drams.
According to one of the protesters, Karen Dadoyan, large merchants working in the farmers’ markets buy and sell products worth 500 thousand - 1 million drams each day, while small traders barely make ends meet. "We have no financial opportunity to enter the market with large quantities of goods," he said. -0-
