Prodeca connects more than 60 Catalan agri-food producers with buyers from Spain's large retailers

On Thursday 8 September, Prodeca held the 1st LOCAL BUYERS NETWORKING, a business event connecting Catalan food and drink producers — both organic and local — with buyers from large retailers and distributors in Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

Barcelona's Llotja de Mar became the meeting point for more than 120 B2B meetings in which over 60 Catalan producers and some twenty buyers were able to generate synergies and new business opportunities to boost sales of local and organic Catalan products.

LOCAL BUYERS NETWORKING uses a quick-meeting format that makes commercial work easier for Catalan producers, maximises the results of their contacts with buyers and speeds up relationships. The event also made the case for the geographical closeness of both parties and focuses the commercial promotion of local and organic produce on the local market.

The meeting ended with a networking aperitif featuring Catalan products, where participants could follow up in a more relaxed setting on the contacts made during the meetings, with the participation of Prodeca's managing director, Ramon Sentmartí, who thanked attendees for taking part and highlighted the importance of the Catalan agri-food sector.

Local produce, growing steadily

Local produce continues to gain ground in Catalans' shopping baskets. This emerges from the 'Mapping of the consumption and marketing of local agri-food products', an analysis by Prodeca's Knowledge and Strategy Area in which more than a third of consumers surveyed said that local produce makes up more than half their shopping basket , and it accounts for 77.6% of retailers' purchases. Turnover by producers with the "Local Sales" label is estimated at €1,470 million, 3.85% of the whole agri-food sector's turnover and 8.9% of total consumer spending on food and drink.

Catalonia, a leader in organic agri-food activities

As for Catalonia's organic production sector, the upward trend continues year after year since the first organic production began in Catalonia more than 30 years ago. According to the 2021 Report on Organic Farming in Catalonia, turnover approached €1,000 million, growth of 22.45%.

With more than 2,600 registered activities, Catalonia remains Spain's leader in this field as the autonomous community with the most processing operators (25.05% of the total), marketers (24.5%), importers (30.3%) and exporters (23.31%), according to 2020 national figures.