More than 60 logistics professionals met at the Port of Barcelona this week in a meeting hosted by the organisers of Fruit Logistica to discuss the city’s growing role as an agro-logistics hub serving the international fruit and vegetable trade.
Pablo Vilanova, strategic director at Mercabarna, said the city’s geographical location, excellent multimodal links and highly entrepreneurial producers and exporters made it an ideal logistics hub for the region.
Rosa Puig, commercial director of the Port of Barcelona, José Luis Guarga of the regional government’s agriculture and fisheries department and Robert Perucho of grower-exporter Fruits de Ponent were among those who gave presentations during the event.
Separately Mercabarna expects to sell more than 100,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables in December in the run-up to Christmas, around 10 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Jaume Flores, president of the wholesale market’s fruit and vegetable company association, said the abundance of high quality produce available, a modest recovery in the economy and reasonable prices were all cause for optimism.
The most demanded products during the Christmas period include pineapples, grapes, citrus and melons.