Filling the shopping basket today costs almost 28% more than it did in December 2021 in Catalonia, according to data from Idescat’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). Faced with rising food prices, Barcelona mayor Jaume Collboni has announced a new formula to improve access to fresh produce at affordable prices: a network of shops in municipally owned premises managed by social-sector organisations. The first establishment is due to open in 2027 in La Marina del Prat Vermell, as part of a model that the City Council plans to extend to other neighborhoods.
The aim is to make quality food more affordable, particularly in newly developed neighborhoods —such as La Marina del Prat Vermell, which is being transformed into a new residential area— where the commercial offer is still limited, or in areas where lower-income families face greater difficulties accessing it. The mayor has stressed that the initiative is not intended to compete with municipal markets or private retailers, but rather to fill gaps in these neighborhoods. But offering the same products at lower prices raises a question: how can food be made more affordable in a sector where margins are already tight? And who will ultimately bear the cost of that reduction?
The issue affects the entire food chain: from the impact on local shops already operating in the neighborhoods where the new establishments will open to the potential effect of lower retail prices on producers, who also operate with tight margins..
Pending the details of this new Barcelona model, the proposal does have a clear reference: New York's public supermarkets. The mayor of Barcelona, in fact, announced the creation of the network of affordable shops after meeting with the New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani, during the Urban20 mayors' summit, held this past weekend in the American city-state. A meeting that served to share experiences on the rising cost of living in large cities, from housing to access to affordable food, one of the main axes of Mamdani's program.
The model promoted by New York plans to create a network of public supermarkets offering fresh food and basic products at reduced prices. The plan includes five establishments, one in each of the city's five boroughs, with the aim that some products can be sold up to 30% below usual prices, regardless of the buyer's income.
It is this formula that Barcelona wants to adapt to its own context. The first pilot is planned for 2027 in Marina del Prat Vermell, in a municipally owned space, and its management will fall to a third-sector entity. The initiative, however, will not be limited to selling food: it also plans to offer training and facilitate job placement in trades linked to food commerce, such as greengrocer, fishmonger, butcher, restocking, or customer service.
Where will the price difference come from?
However, the Barcelona proposal still needs to specify two aspects that could condition the operation of this new supermarket network: who will be able to buy there and how these more affordable prices will be achieved. Municipal statements place working families and vulnerable areas or those with little supply among the recipients, but it has not yet been defined whether the reduced prices will be accessible to all citizens —as they are in New York— or if there will be any criteria linked to income or economic situation.
It is on these two issues that many of the concerns of the consulted voices from the sector coincide. While positively valuing the objective of facilitating access to food and the need to support families with fewer resources, both Pimec and Barcelona Oberta, from the distribution and commerce sector, and Unió de Pagesos, from the farming sector, demand more specific details on how the model will work economically and, above all, who will end up assuming the cost of offering these products at a lower price without harming the establishments already operating there or the producers behind the food chain.
“Food distribution is not a monopolistic sector, but quite the opposite: there is a lot of competition, with large operators, medium-sized companies, and small local shops. This competition means that prices are very tight and profit margins are also quite narrow,” points out Joaquim de Toca, secretary of Barcelona Oberta and general director for Spain and Portugal of MUJI.
German Domínguez (Unió de Pagesos): “If a price reduction is to be applied to food, this difference will have to come from somewhere. And it cannot be at the expense of the agricultural sector”
The price that the consumer pays for fresh food, however, does not depend solely on the margin applied by the supermarket or shop. Behind it there is a whole chain of costs —from production and transport to energy, salaries or other marketing expenses— that ultimately determine the final price. For this reason, any reduction in consumer prices can end up having effects on one of the different links in the food chain, especially in those that already work with tight margins.
From the farming sector, German Domínguez, coordinator of the Unió de Pagesos of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, focuses on this point and warns that the reduction cannot fall on the producer: “If a reduction in food prices is to be applied, this difference will have to come from somewhere. And it cannot be at the expense of the agricultural sector.” This is an especially sensitive issue for a sector that has been mobilizing for years to demand that the prices it receives for its production cover costs and guarantee the viability of farms.
The challenge of not harming existing commerce
The question is not only how lower prices will be achieved, but also how this new model will fit with the commerce that already exists in the neighborhoods. The project still needs to specify whether affordable prices will be accessible to all citizens or if they will be specifically aimed at families with fewer resources, a difference that can be decisive. If access is universal, the new municipal establishments will compete directly with the shops that already offer these products, a situation that de Toca believes could lead to “unfair competition” if this price difference is based on selling below what private operators can afford.
For Pimec Comerç, this is one of the main unknowns of the project. The organization demands to study the offer and needs of each area before deciding where to deploy the network and suggests that, in some cases, public resources could be used to reinforce existing commerce, with measures such as affordable rents, incentives, or support for generational succession. A commitment that, according to Pimec, does not only respond to a commercial issue, but also to the role these establishments play in the life of neighborhoods. "Proximity commerce goes beyond its commercial function: it is economic activity and employment, but also social cohesion and life in the streets," recalls Àlex Goñi, president of Pimec Barcelona.
If, on the other hand, the model focuses specifically on people in vulnerable situations, De Toca raises whether these public resources could not be invested directly in the entities that already work with these groups, through subsidies or incentives to reinforce the food aid programs offered by organizations such as the Food Bank or Caritas.
In any case, Barcelona Oberta demands that the proposal does not remain just an announcement and that the City Council specifies how it will be financed and how the model will work: what products will be sold, at what price, how the managing social entity will be selected, and what supply system will be used. In short, the project will have to face the challenge of specifying how to achieve a more affordable basket without altering the balance of a food chain with different links, from the producer to shops and supermarkets.