Since late 2020 and early 2021 the butchers’ quarters at the Sir Selwyn Selwyn Clarke Market in Victoria has been under renovation and was scheduled to re-open before Christmas last year. But this has been delayed.

Seychelles NATION contacted the market manager, Vincent Germain, for some clarifications. “The butchers’ quarters is almost completed. Following a visit from Public Health, we had to add a few more items and follow some recommendations. In the past, the cabinets were made of wood but now with the new standards it is not recommended to have wooden cabinets. We now have to have everything in stainless steel, even the table should be in stainless steel.”

Another recommendation that was not in the previous project before was to have three phase electric system. “Now that we’ve got the budget for it, we found a contractor to do it and we also had to buy water heaters. Most probably the butchers’ quarters will be ready by end of March.”

The provider for stainless steel materials has not been finalized and currently four stalls are getting ready to be delivered soon.

The new facilities are meant to provide butchers with a more suitable and more conducive environment to sell their products. This decision was made after various concerns were raised on the conditions of the existing butchers’ shops by the Public Health Authority and the agency. At the beginning, following consecutive discussions with the butchers, numerous concerns were made on the newly constructed facilities; primarily in regards to limited size of the shops. Late December 2020, the Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment, Flavien Joubert, who visited the area, agreed to make minor adjustments to the project to ensure that adequate space is allocated to each vendor.

Source: Seychelles Nation