The fresh food heart of Melbourne is set to move – more than a decade after the government decided it was a good idea – and have an immediate impact on Victoria’s road network with calls for the urgent completion of the Metropolitan Ring Road.
The wholesale fruit and vegetable market will begin vacating its 35-hectare Footscray Road site in July and open at the new 70-hectare Epping site on August 3.
The massive $600 million new market will bring a much needed economic fillip to Melbourne’s north with 600 direct market businesses and another 3000 businesses indirectly utilising the new facility.
“It is very exciting for thousands of people,” Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said.
Situated close to the Hume Freeway, Melbourne’s gateway to the northern food bowl, the relocation is expected to ease truck movements in the heart of the city.
But Keilor vegetable grower David Wallace said many growers had concerns about the new market location and facility.
“There are not that many positives at all [about the new market], it’s just a new building,” he said.
Mr Wallace, who is president of the Vegetable Growers Association of Victoria, said the Metropolitan Ring Road link from Greensborough to the Eastern Freeway must be built immediately to provide access to the new market for vegetable growers in the south-east.
He said when the market move was first announced they were told the ring road would be completed by 2020.
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Mr Wallace said there were also concerns about the travel distance to Epping for small city retailers and the reduced space at the new market for vegetable growers.
The RACV’s Brian Negus said the missing link in the Metropolitan Ring Road had long been the RACVs number one priority.
He said traffic demands from the new Epping market amplified the need for the ring-road completion.
The new Epping market will also include the National Flower Centre and Ms Pulford said it would be a huge economic boost to Melbourne’s north.
“It will create great opportunities for the north in terms of businesses that support activities at the market,” Ms Pulford said.
She said the expanded market facility came at a good time with increased interest in locally sourced produce.
The wholesale market sells local fruit and vegetables as well as tropical fruit and vegetables from interstate and overseas.
The market move was the subject of a critical Auditor General’s report in 2012, that found significant delays in the move, cost overrun, and poor stakeholder management – “management of market tenants contributed to a number of adverse events during the first five years of the project”.
The original cost of the market move was put at $230 million and the final $600 million price tag includes $75 million in private-sector investment.
The future of the 35 hectares of prime Footscray Road real estate where the current market stands is unclear.
This story first appeared in The Age
