According to fish stall owner Kees Karregat, German patronage on the market has virtually disappeared. For him, that amounts to a loss of sales of 80 percent, he estimates over the past few weeks.
To dump
“I am standing here with a lump in my throat and shaking knees,” says Karregat. “You have to buy fish and then wait and see if you sell. And if things go wrong, you can dump it in the evening, because you cannot refreeze that trade.”
The greengrocer in the market says he only gets half of his normal turnover. While the last two weeks it was just autumn holidays across the border in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Normally these are the weeks when business is going well for market traders and retailers. “But now those German customers stayed away,” says the owner of the vegetable stand.
The Netherlands ‘risk area’
Since 15 October, the Netherlands has been designated a risk area by Germany due to the high number of infections. Since October 17, only necessary, non-tourist travel is allowed. Anyone who wants to cross the border to Germany must present a negative corona test.
Border traffic from North Rhine-Westphalia that stays in the Netherlands for less than 24 hours is not required to undergo testing upon return. But now that the number of daily reported infections is also rising sharply among the eastern neighbors, the question is how many Germans use it for groceries or for shopping.
As long as they adhere to the corona rules, German consumers are very welcome as far as the province of Limburg is concerned. “Everywhere you see that turnover is declining enormously, which is why it is also important that we continue to buy things together,” says Joost van den Akker, Deputy for Economics. Because, according to the commissioner, that is the only way to limit the impact of the corona crisis on entrepreneurs as much as possible.
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