Montserrat Gil de Bernabé, managing director of Mercabarna, and Casimiro Llorens, president of the AGEM, accepted the award at the 10th ‘5-a-Day’ Assembly held in Madrid on 7 May.

This award recognises the work of the ‘5-a-Day’ campaign which Mercabarna and the AGEM have been running for the past nine years to boost the consumption of five daily servings of fruit and vegetables among Catalan schoolchildren. The close-to-6,000 children who participate in the campaign every year are proof of the initiative’s success.

At this first awards ceremony, the Association also sought to distinguish the following for their contributions to the diffusion of fruit and vegetables: the Spanish Ministry of the Rural, Marine and Natural Environment, the European Commission and the Association of Canary Island Banana Producers’ Organisations (ASPROCAN). Joaquín Rey, president of the association, also received an honorary award for his outstanding career.

Low fruit and vegetable consumption
Spaniards still do not eat five daily portions of fruit and vegetables. This was all too clearly revealed in the study, “5-a-Day Panel on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption”, presented in the course of the Assembly. The document revealed that 44% of those surveyed consume a single serving of fruit a day and a scant 18% consume one of vegetables. It points to simple lack of habit as one of the main deterrents to consumption.

This problem was also the topic of the paper given by IESE professor José Luís Nueno, who supported the idea of continuing to run promotion campaigns for healthy eating habits, especially among children.