Food markets face marathon hours during the Olympics

 

Clubbers who like to grab a kebab on the way home will have the option to snack on fresh fruit - or even stock up on fish - in the early hours during the Olympics.

New Covent Garden Market plans to start selling its fresh fruit and veg to the public before midnight instead of the usual 3am, while Billingsgate fish market could open three hours early at 2am to make sure London's bars, hotels and restaurants are kept stocked up.

Deliveries of fresh fish will aim to get away before 6am, when daily road restrictions prioritising Olympic traffic start, while New Covent Garden deliveries may have to start in the afternoon to ensure the next day's supplies reach clients in time.

Don Tyler, head of the traders' association at Billingsgate, which is supplied from as far afield as Scotland, said: "The Olympics are going to create an awful lot of confusion but we're going to have to adapt. By then we're going to be starting the market at 4am and we're looking at starting trading even earlier, we might have to open at 2am. One way or another we're going to be able to muddle through but this depends of course on fish arriving on time every day."

While traders appreciate the business opportunities, they fear deliveries from July to September could be a problem. Gerry Cupples, director of Medina Food Services Ltd at New Covent Garden, is putting in contingency plans to ensure deliveries reach clients, which include restaurants Quaglino's, Meza, Skylon, Bluebird and the Almeida theatre.

He said: "It's quite a culture change to ask the client for deliveries to come at a different time and to ask drivers to come in a couple of hours early."

At Nature's Choice, which supplies 150 London restaurants and hotels with fresh fruit, co-partner John Lapi said work will start as early as 11pm. "I expect business to go up by about half."

Drivers face £200 fines for wrongly using the 30-plus miles of "Zil lanes" linking Olympic venues and accommodation, which will typically operate from 6am to 10pm. Transport for London today launched a freight advice programme, with advisers assigned to the major wholesale markets.

Transport commissioner Peter Hendy said: "Ensuring that supermarkets, restaurants and pubs remain stocked will be critical to the overall success of the Games. Businesses in hotspots that make or receive freight deliveries need to start planning now."

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