The fresh fish store in Greymouth was forced to shut down last week after a complaint about it operating during lockdown.
Cindy Boote, of Westfleet, said yesterday the company was notified by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that a complaint had been received from a local resident about the wharf store trading during Covid-19 Alert Level 4.
"Upon receiving this we closed our store immediately, not wanting to compromise our factory," Ms Boote said.
"It was disappointing as every measure was taken to provide a safe place in which to purchase our fresh fish, being one of the few food producers on the Coast.
"Westfleet is aware that it fills a valuable role as a food producer and employer, and the effects it has directly and indirectly in our community, so being here is something we don’t take for granted.
"Coasters are resilient. If it’s not Covid threatening our livelihoods it’s extreme weather events, so we learn to adapt no matter what is thrown at us."
The fresh fish outlet employs one full-time and one part-time worker.
"We will reopen our store as soon as permitted [Level 3] with the same strict guidelines we had in Level 4, that being contactless payment, limited numbers in store and 2m distancing," Ms Boote said.
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Comments
But yet is a vital food source.
And some groups are allowed to go whitebaiting??
We really need to sort this, it's appalling.
The big supermarkets win again.......is this all in the big plan? Many would tell you so.
Why can't l open my butcher shop? Thousands of dollars of fresh meat.....frozen.
Just cause you think you're being as safe as you can doesn't mean you're not breaking the law! Looking at you green grocers..
Green grocers are scared to be looked at by an anon on comment threads.
There are a lot of apparent inconsistencies in who is allowed to open and what is regarded as essential items. All the decisions are made by MBIE a monster bureaucracy created by Steven Joyce, a National MP, against the advice of every advisory agency in the land. Treasury was against it, the former state services commission was against it and all of the govt depts were against it. It was a mistake then, it is mistake now and that is shown by the number of mistakes coming out of it during this pandemic.