From 20 to 25 March, three representatives of Mercabarna management travelled to Montevideo, Uruguay in order to advise this city’s authorities on the design of a food platform. This trip was part of the collaboration agreement maintained between the city halls of Barcelona and Montevideo for three years now, under which Mercabarna is advising the executive of this market on the transfer of its wholesale fruit and vegetable market to the city’s outskirts.

The fact is that the Modelo Market, with infrastructures built in the late 1930s, has become obsolete and no longer responds to current consumption needs. And too, its location right in the city causes constant traffic tie-ups and waste management problems. For this reason the Uruguayan authorities have opted to move this centre to property 10 kilometres outside Montevideo and to make it a food platform, following the Mercabarna model, with activities that will provide added product value and customer service.

Onsite visit to Montevideo
Through this visit to Montevideo, the Mercabarna representatives sought to gain insight into this city’s fruit and vegetable marketing situation and to specify certain aspects of the new market project. To this end, they held several work meetings with the different agents involved in the design and construction of this new food platform: the Ministry of Agriculture, Montevideo City Council, the Modelo Market management, representatives of the Market wholesalers, retailers and major distribution and the architects who will design the project. During these encounters the Mercabarna members highlighted the synergies that are created within a food unit and the opportunity that this creates for companies involved in fruit and vegetable marketing. On the final day of the visit, Joaquím Ros, director of Markets and Promotion of Mercabarna, presented the preliminary project for the new market at a crowded press conference, presided over by Montevideo mayor Ricardo Ehrlich.