Mercabarna Export Cluster held a meeting on Tuesday at the Alimentaria trade fair being held in Barcelona to announce its strategy for 2014 and 2015. The group was established in November last year and is made up of 40 companies based at the city’s wholesale market who share a common aim of boosting their export role.
Among the activities planned for the next two years are research into new markets, a planned study on how to improve road, sea and air links from the market, participation in various trade fairs and the organisation of trade missions to key countries.
A number of companies in the Export Cluster already ship to countries such as Germany and France and are looking to expand their presence there, while also studying the possibility of accessing new markets in northern Africa, the Middle East and even China. The volume of fruits and vegetables traded at Mercabarna that end up being exported increased by 5 per cent to 25 per cent of total sales in 2013.
According to Mercabarna’s managing director, Josep Tejedo, improving transport links to and from the market is one of the key objectives of the group. He said a key way of increasing the market’s logistical efficiency is “through the greater use of mixed trucks, loaded with different products from various companies before being exported”.
The market is also in discussions with Spanish airport operator Aena and several airlines about increasing the volume of airfreighted produce imports and exports at Barcelona’s El Prat airport.
Introducing new short sea shipping routes to Barcelona will also boost the volume of fruits and vegetables being transported to and from the market via containers that would make the loading and unloading process faster and more efficient and allow for the greater use of intermodal solutions.
