The Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, the Secretary of Agriculture and Food, Fernando Miranda and the Government Delegate in Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, have visited Mercabarna. During the visit to this large market, he was accompanied by the first deputy mayor of the Barcelona City Council, Jaume Collboni; the president of Mercasa, José Ramón Sempere and the president of Mercabarna and Councilor for Commerce, Markets, Consumption, Internal Regime and Finance of the Barcelona City Council, Montserrat Ballarín.
The goal of the visit was to learn about the operation of the food site, its main projects, the Central Market for Fruits and Vegetables and the recently opened Biomarket. During the meeting with the media, the Minister of Agriculture highlighted the role of Mercabarna and other Spanish markets as essential services, as they have guaranteed the food supply during the health crisis that we are suffering. "As a whole, Spanish markets bring around 3,000 agro-food companies together and supply 30 million consumers."
Planas also spoke about the organic sector, saying that Spain currently has the largest production area devoted to organic crops (9.3% of Spain's usable agricultural area, with the goal of reaching 25% by 2030). "For this reason, promoting food distribution through Mercabarna's Biomarket is very important for our country," he said.
Collboni has highlighted the importance of Mercabarna as the most important agro-food hub in the Mediterranean, both industrially and economically. "For this reason, the Barcelona City Council and Mercabarna are working on three lines: promoting the Biomarket, which is already the largest in Europe when it comes to the number of fruit and vegetable companies; working to achieve Barcelona's objectives as the World Capital of Sustainable Food in 2021; and contributing to the modernization of Mercabarna, with an emphasis on digitization, especially of logistics, and reducing its environmental impact."
Regarding the latter, Collboni said that Mercabarna, through the Mercabarna Gates project, and supported by an important group of companies and institutions, is opting to receive Next Generation funds from the European Union.
The delegation visited two halls of the Central Fruit and Vegetable Market, the most important in Europe for product marketing. During the visit, the Minister had the opportunity to greet the representatives of the different business associations that operate in Mercabarna. Afterwards, the delegation went to the Biomarket, where they visited the different points of sale and talked with the wholesalers.