On 15 January, in remarks on the COM Radio programme “Today at COM”, Jordi William Carnes, Mercabarna president and deputy mayor of Barcelona with responsibility for Finance and Economic Promotion, stressed the need for Barcelona’s Border Inspection Points (BIPs) to work 24-hour days.

Since late January, Mercabarna has had a four-member team to survey the wholesale business owners and buyers of the Central Markets and Food Unit firms, with the purpose of obtaining information for improving services.

At Mercabarna’s request, the Zona Franca Consortium has built two raised pedestrian walkways in the Zona Franca’s Calle F.

This coming 3-4 February, the Training Area will offer a seminar for Mercabarna business owners and managers. The event will focus on improved job performance and professional and personal organisation.

In the coming months, the Gardening Guild of Catalonia, together with the Catalan Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Action and the Mercabarna Training Area, will be organising two courses for training plant-health product applicators.

In 2009, Mercabarna Training Area will manage over €300,000 earmarked for ongoing training of the employees of 84 Mercabarna businesses.

Stable marketing and prices: this was the feature of Mercabarna’s Central Fruit and Vegetable Market throughout 2008.

81,168 tonnes of products were sold at Mercabarna’s Central Fish Market in 2008, a drop of only 1% over 2007. The average Market price was also on a par with 2007 at €6.28/kg.

A group of members of the organisation “Friends of the Museums of Catalonia” visited the new Mercabarna-flor on 14 January.

This year the Mercabarna-flor Wholesale Business Association (AEM), together with Mercabarna, has programmed a series of floral demonstrations with the aim of offering customers new ideas to help them boost sales of plants, flowers and accessories.