Historic day for Mercabarna. After more than ten years of negotiations, the Mercabarna expansion project, the large Barcelona central market for fresh products considered the largest agri-food hub in the Mediterranean, has finally been unblocked. Mercabarna, where the Barcelona City Council owns 50.69% of the shares, has signed an agreement with the Consorci de la Zona Franca (CZFB) to acquire a plot called 22AL that will allow the complex's surface area to increase by 22%, gaining 173,194 m². This space will enable the future growth of the market and allow it to adapt to the changes taking place in the agri-food sector, with a strong commitment to promoting healthy eating, sustainability, the circular economy, and boosting new technology-based companies applied to the food industry.
The expansion project has the potential to generate between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs, according to Barcelona's first deputy mayor, Jaume Collboni. Mercabarna currently hosts some 600 companies that employ 7,500 people and, in aggregate, account for a turnover of 5,000 million euros, equivalent, according to Collboni, to 11% of the wealth generated in Barcelona and 3.8% of Catalonia's GDP. 30% of the food that passes through Mercabarna is exported. "Mercabarna is a success model ---highlights the deputy mayor--- and today is a historic day because with this expansion we will facilitate the establishment of new activities, with greater added value and with a new scale of values based on the reduction of emissions, clean energy, waste minimization, and food repurposing."
Mercabarna will pay 69.77 million euros to the CZFB for the land, a figure that it will finance 70% with its own resources and 30% through a 20 million euro bank loan that will be signed with CaixaBank. The goal is for the operation to be formalized before a notary before the end of the year. Currently, on land parcel 22AL, which will become part of Mercabarna, there are eleven companies installed, with contracts that mostly end between 2031 and 2036, although in two cases the contracts do not expire until 2047 and 2066. According to Mercabarna, all current contracts will be respected, so the available land will increase as these leases expire. Some of these tenants are already part of Mercabarna, as they are fresh produce companies that had to go to this CZFB land at the time due to not having space to grow within the central market itself.
In 22AL there is currently an empty plot of 10,000 m². It is expected that in 2022 another 10,000 m² will become available, so in a first phase, 20,000 m² can be occupied in this expansion area. However, these lands that are now being purchased are not Mercabarna's only land reserve; after years of scarcity, it has managed to gain another 27,000 m² within the complex itself as a result of the decision to close the slaughterhouse. In addition, next to the new organic products market, Biomarket, there is another buildable plot of 8,000 m², which raises the short-term land availability to 55,000 m².
In statements to The New Barcelona Post, Mercabarna's general director, Jordi Valls, explains that he currently has on the table investment projects from different market companies that could absorb 30,000 m². Priority will be given to the occupation of the land previously occupied by the slaughterhouse, currently in the demolition phase.
Valls has been one of the architects of the pact that has allowed the expansion of Mercabarna to be unblocked, along with the special delegate of the State in the CZFB, Pere Navarro, and the president of Mercabarna, Montserrat Ballarín, who yesterday also acknowledged the work of Joan Llonch, former president of Assocome, the association that defends the interests of all companies installed in Mercabarna.
For the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the expansion of Mercabarna "will have a very important impact on the food sector." "Mercabarna will be bigger and better every day. It must be a world reference in promoting a more sustainable, healthier, more ecological, and local food system," considers the mayor.
According to Ballarín, Mercabarna was born as a market of markets, then transformed into a food unit and a hub, and now faces the challenge of becoming "a true food ecosystem." Thus, in addition to bringing together the central markets for meat, fish, and fruits and vegetables, Mercabarna stands as one of the largest logistics platforms for the distribution of fresh food in Europe, a center for transformation and food industry, and an R&D hub with direct links to universities and research centers.
Thus, the new area gained with the agreement signed with the CZFB will be allocated to the growth of the various operators already installed in Mercabarna, to the incorporation of new companies that bring technological innovation, and to companies specialized in sustainable agriculture, zero-kilometer, or plant-based protein. In addition, the agrologistics sector is to be promoted to increase multimodality and optimize the last-mile delivery system. Another challenge of the expansion is the creation of an incubator (sandbox or test bench) for startups linked to healthy and future food.