COVID wrecking brothers’ mango business

The Goldbourne brothers, both mango vendors in White Horses, St Thomas, said they have not been spared from COVID-19's wrath, which has resulted in a plunge in mango sales.

Andre Goldbourne told THE WEEKEND STAR that he has been a mango vendor for years, and this is by far his worst season.

"I've been selling mangoes for a while now because my parents have been doing it, so naturally, I know the business and, to be honest, me never see business this bad," he said. "We are getting less sales because there are not a lot of people on the road as before."

He said that the nightly 6 p.m. curfew forces them to leave for home earlier.

"Normally, we used to leave like seven in the night or after eight, and this setting us up to lose a lot because the mangoes them can spoil," he said. "In summertime when it is mango season, we usually sell around 20 or 30 plates of mangoes. But how it is now, we get to sell like a six or seven plate, sometimes five, and I don't see it changing much because people are staying home due to the virus."

Alex, his younger brother, is distraught by the minimal sales.

"Everything a sell slow. We woulda normally sell off the ripe mango them from morning already, but through the virus people hardly a stop. The people dem nah take no check because of the virus," Alex told THE WEEKEND STAR. "Me just really want the virus to be over with so things can go back to normal."

Andre said, "Sometimes we usually sell in Portland but because of the virus thing, and there are more cases over there, we prefer to stay in St Thomas right now."

He added that his suppliers are also being affected because he is now forced to buy less from them.

"If me usually buy like 10 dozen, now we have to buy like six or five. Me still a try support them, too, because the export market not going so good and everybody a try survive same way," he said.

Up to yesterday, St Thomas only had two positive COVID cases, but the brothers are taking no chances.

"We protect ourselves by masking up and we have our sanitisers, so after we sell and hold the money, we was our hands and remain clean," said Alex.

"We afi gwan work with the system and protect ourselves because we prefer stay alive than to get some money," Andre added.

A.D.