The Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights notifies that the Ministry for Economy, Investment and Small Businesses is issuing regulations to farmers’ market permit holders to be granted a temporary street hawker licence.
These regulations are intended to provide the possibility to farmers in possession of a farmer’s market permit to sell fruit and vegetables cultivated in holdings registered with the Agriculture Directorate. This is being issued in view of the restrictions imposed by Legal Notice 65 of 2020, which prohibits the organisation of open-air markets, which affected the organization of the farmers’ market.
In this critical period resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, the Ministries responsible for Agriculture, Economy and Health are collectively working together to ensure a constant fresh fruit and vegetable supply. In this regard, farmers’ market permit holders shall automatically be deemed to be in possession of a temporary licence to operate as street hawkers to sell local agricultural produce without the need to apply and secure a street hawkers licence, as is required under the Subsidiary Legislation 441.07 Trading Licences Regulations. This temporary licence shall be subject to all conditions and penalties related to street hawking as may be applicable, except for the obligation to apply for a street hawker’s licence.
The said temporary licence is subject to the following conditions;
• the person must ensure to register said activity with the Food Safety Commission;
• a person deemed to be in possession of a temporary licence to operate as a street hawker may have a substitute and up to two assistants, provided that these had been notified beforehand to the Farmers’ Market Administration Unit and that they wear at all times the provided identification badges;
• the permit document issued by the Farmers’ Market Administration Unit in respect of a stall within a farmers’ market shall be kept clearly visible at all times;
• the vehicle must not be parked within 100 metres of walking distance from the entrance of any commercial premises which is not closed and at least 100 metres of walking distance away from another licensed street hawker;
• irrespective of the type of licence, there should not be more than two street hawkers at any one time within a circumference of three hundred meters; and
• a street hawker or person deemed to be in possession of a temporary license as a street hawker may serve only one customer at a time, and the other customers have to stay in a line with a distance of one metre from each other.
Such temporary licences are valid until such time that the Superintendent of Public Health determines:
a) that markets or farmers’ markets shall not remain closed; or
b) that street hawking activity, including street hawking for the selling of vegetables, shall cease; or
c) that the persons themselves fall within a category of persons which are not permitted to be outdoors.
