Around 350 Catalan fruit and vegetable professionals, along with 27 international operators, participated in the FRUITA 10 Congress, Catalonia's First International Congress on Sweet Fruits, which was held from 5 to 7 May in Lleida.
This Congress, organised by D

AR, the Catalan government's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Action, and Prodeca, Promoter of Catalan Exports, sought to demonstrate to Catalan companies the business opportunities that exist for exporting their products to new, emerging markets such as China, India, the Middle East and Russia, as well as presenting the Catalan fruit and vegetable sector to the international operators who were attending.
Representing Mercabarna at the day events were the management from the food site and three companies from the Central Fruit and Vegetable Market.

Meeting to establish contacts
The Congress was divided into two day events. At the first, several talks were given in order to explain the advantages and drawbacks of exporting to these markets. It spelled out how these are countries with great potential for growth in the consumption of fruit and vegetables, but each one of them demands compliance with a series of specific requisites for imports.

For this reason, the need to set up collaboration projects between exporting companies was stressed at the first day event, in order to respond to the demands of these markets and be able to compete with countries that already export to these locations, such as France, the Netherlands, the US, Canada and Chile.

During the second day event, business meetings were organised between Catalan businessmen and women and the international operators attending.

All the information on the Congress, the speakers, documentation, etc. can be found at: www.prodeca.cat