BETEL-NUT farmers who normally come to Honiara to sell their products are calling for respect to be exercised by their fellow clients in the various betel-nut markets in the city.
This was after going through several harsh treatments by women vendors especially, to lower their selling prices for a single bag of betel-nut.
They said they had travelled long distances, paid huge amounts of money as freight to transport their products and deserved profits from their hard work.
“We don’t like the way some women in the city are treating us when we are selling our products.
“In several occasions, they would grab our properties (betel-nut products) and started naming their own prices instead of accepting our original selling price.
“This is very unacceptable because all of us are struggling to make ends meet, so that we can be able to put food on the table every day.
“With them treating us this way is impolite and we are calling for respect to be exercised whenever we are coming to town to trade our goods.
“People need to understand that we paid large amounts of money to bring the products to town,” Shirley Lody, a betel-nut farmer from south Malaita told the Solomon Star.
She said, many of her friends had also been victims of similar treatments and she hoped voicing their concerns in the media will definitely help.
Ms Lody said, they had been saying this many times while in Honiara to do trading but had fallen short on the deaf ears of their regulars.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA