Improvements were made to the Mercabarna Training Area in January with the purpose of adapting the facilities to the current standards the Catalan Occupation Service (SOC) requires of all collaborating entities.

The car park of the Makro warehouse, located next to the Mercabarna precinct, has been a fee-paying facility since mid-January.

Spanish company Mercasa has published its annual Food in Spain 2009.

Since the end of 2009, Mercabarna has been collaborating with Saó, a reflection group that seeks to foster discussion and dissemination of the situation of the rural world and agrofood sector.

Mercabarna is spearheading the project to draft the Strategic Plan for the Food Business Cluster in Barcelona.

On 18 January Mercabarna and the Institute for Agrofood Research and Technology (IRTA) signed an agreement to work together in the areas of research and technology transfer.

The health centre run by Asepeyo, the occupational accident-insurance company, has acquired a new ambulance.

Mercabarna’s Wastewater Treatment Plant (EDAR) is equipped with a new facility for purifying the wastewater from activity at the Slaughterhouse and Central Fish Market - a biological purifier which further enhances the process of eliminating waste from water.

The work material and equipment business Ryddet has opened a new store in the banks and offices area (c/Longitudinal 4, store no. 17).

Mercabarna hosted the 2nd Congress for Official Food Controls in Wholesale Markets, organised by the Barcelona Healthcare Consortium and Public Health Agency on 22 and 23 October.