Having postponed its final decision until a cabinet meeting in January next year, Birmingham City Council came under further pressure last week to secure the 15,000 jobs that are at risk at the city’s Wholesale Market.
Birmingham Wholesale Fresh Produce Association, which represents the majority of the market traders, commissioned a study to establish the market’s importance to Birmingham and the national food supply chain, in the hope that it would influence the council’s decision.
Published last week, ‘Birmingham Wholesale Markets - the Essential Catalyst’ indicates that the market supports over 1,110 employees on-site and close to 14,000 people who depend on the market’s trade in Birmingham and the wider region.
Clearly, the market is important for the economic wellbeing of Birmingham, but it is not just the livelihood of thousands that is at stake, traders say. The city’s heritage is closely linked to the market, which dates back to 1166.
Today, the market contributes significantly to the multicultural vibrancy of the city as well as serving the needs of the ethnic minority communities across the Midlands, supporters point out. It also provides important access to low cost fresh produce and is a critical component of the wider markets community in Birmingham.
The way the market is set up, integrating fruit and vegetables, fish and poultry, meat and flower trading operations on one site, has been the template for other wholesale markets around the world, a fact the Birmingham Wholesale Fresh Produce Association thinks should be celebrated.
Why, asks the association, if all the UK’s large cities - such as Manchester - have, and fund, a wholesale market, can’t Birmingham continue to do the same?
What they are asking Birmingham City Council for is a financial commitment to either spend money refurbishing the current site or give funding to build or buy a new site, a solution that was previously promised.
Peter Marshall, co-chairman of the Birmingham Wholesale Fresh Produce Association, said: “Our first option would be to stay on the original site, refurbished, maybe on a slightly smaller scale. We can’t split it up, we feed off each other.”
As the largest integrated markets in the UK, and one of the largest in Europe, the markets have an aggregate turnover of £275 million. As one insider put it: “How can the council say that they can’t make it pay? It’s just bad management on their part.”
Last week, a spokesperson for Birmingham City Council said: “The City Council understands that the Wholesale Market operation, which includes around 90 businesses, plays a role in providing jobs both directly and indirectly within the local economy.
“It is exactly for this reason that we need to consider the future of the Wholesale Market and the City Council is consulting widely in this regard and taking account of the condition and limited life of the current buildings and of the infrastructure.
“Only by operating from a modern facility can the operation of the market and jobs it supports be protected in the longer term, which is why we would urge traders to proactively engage with the City Council and any private sector developer who is interested in helping secure the future of the Wholesale Market within Birmingham.” -
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