‘Everyone’s going to pay for this’: could a Melbourne rent stoush push fruit and vegetable prices higher?

‘We really don’t know what we’re going to do’ … wholesale fruit supplier Shane Priest has leased a stall at the Melbourne Market for a decade, but now finds himself in a legal standoff with the market authority. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

As Melburnians are rousing from sleep, Shane Priest is nearing the end of his morning at the city’s major wholesale market. While the sprawling Melbourne Market in the city’s north is closed to the public, the fruit and vegetables sold here are destined for the shelves of independent grocers and supermarkets, restaurants and cafes.

Priest, a fourth-generation fruit grower and wholesaler, has leased a stall at the market in Epping for the past decade. He now finds himself in a legal standoff over his expired rental agreement at the market.