Mercabarna has just launched Biomarket, the first wholesale market for organic food in Spain. With this facility, Barcelona's central market aims to respond to the growing demand for this type of product from families and restaurants, and also to promote competition and adjust prices by concentrating the main operators in the sector in the same venue.
Biomarket is located in a newly built sustainable building that has been erected on part of the land freed up by the former Makro chain store, which moved to another location in the Zona Franca industrial estate. The project has involved an investment of five million euros and has a total area of 8,900 square meters, of which 5,180 square meters correspond to built area and 2,568 square meters to commercial area.
Biomarket houses 21 points of sale, of which 16 are stalls for wholesale organic fruit and vegetable companies, two are stalls for agricultural cooperatives, and three for multi-product wholesale companies, meaning they sell all types of organic food, such as pasta, oil, legumes, rice, or wine.
Companies awarded the public tender
To find the operators of the Biomarket, Mercabarna called a public tender to which many of the large fruit companies already operating in the central market of Barcelona applied. Aresca Fruit (3 points of sale), Frutas y Verduras Antonio (3 stalls), Hermanos Fernández López (3 stalls), Badosa Fruits, Bio La Extra-terrestre, Prats Fruits, Torres Hermanos and Ronda Fruits were awarded stalls. The multi-product companies Green Growing Organic and Sinergia Macanuda also won the tender. Finally, the Hortec cooperative is also present, and the other of the two planned stalls for cooperatives remained vacant.
Initially, the Biomarket had planned a space for the sale of organic meat, but no company applied for the tender. With the aim of promoting agriculture in Baix Llobregat and the consumption of local food, the new market has a space of more than one hundred square meters dedicated to the direct sale by small farmers close to Mercabarna. Unlike the aforementioned companies, which have won a concession for 20 years, these producers can freely go to sell their products and occupy the space they need depending on the harvest and the time of year. In 2021, another similar area is planned to open, dedicated to the sale of local fruits and vegetables and multi-product items but from all over Catalonia.
According to Mercabarna, the Biomarket will allow greater visibility for organic food, bring it closer to the general public and the catering sector, promote competition and favor variety of supply and a better quality-price ratio, provide market access to small producers and guarantee traceability, since the complex will have an office of the certifying body: the Consell Català de la Producció Agraria Ecològica (CCPAE).
The inauguration of the Biomarket is also part of the World Sustainable Food Capital that Barcelona will host in 2021, an initiative aimed at achieving an agricultural model more respectful of the environment and that favors a healthier type of diet.
Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
Stay informed with the latest news.
