The La Boqueria market in Barcelona, the most well-known in the city, located on La Rambla, is undergoing a physical renovation as well as a commercial offer overhaul. The City Council and the Municipal Market Institute explained this Thursday the imminent steps in the physical rehabilitation and a “commercial reorganization” aimed at maintaining the character of a neighborhood food market, local and close by. The changes will mean a drastic reduction in the offer of prepared products: a term that includes food offerings such as cooked legumes or a chicken skewer from a butcher, which is understood to be traditional; but it will mainly affect the growing abundant offer aimed at tourists. We are no longer just talking about fruit juices or ham cones, as a few years ago. Now there are almost entire stalls with portions of paella, patatas bravas, fried chicken, sandwiches, pitas, trays of churros with chocolate, or meringues. Formally, the changes will be materialized in a new regulation approved last year by the La Boqueria Vendors Association, but after internal and administrative procedures, it will not reach the City Council Plenary until the end of the year. The changes will be noticeable next summer.
The new Regulation is not easy to understand. The idea is that there should be 50% traditional product and 50% prepared product. And this percentage applies to any food sector: fish and seafood, butcher, delicatessen, fruit and vegetables, game and eggs, bakery, legumes, salted fish, frozen products… The manager of the Market Institute, Màxim López, has defended that all markets must “have a mixture, a dual activity: fresh and local products, but also prepared products that any market offers to neighbors.” And he warned that, in the case of La Boqueria, the stallholders “who focus on a product purely offered for consumption in the market, must have their own product of their specialty.”
Deputy Mayor Raquel Gil summarized that the municipal will is “to change the narrative and the conception that the city has of La Boqueria, and for the negative discourses to become positive” and pointed out that the regulation had 90% support from the merchants.
Regarding the renovation works, with a budget of 12 million euros, after the summer the improvements to the lighting of the logistics area and the new public restrooms will begin. The project for the renovation of the fish island will also be drafted. The market will not close completely at any time, municipal officials have assured.
Between 2027 and 2029, the more extensive works will be carried out, such as the replacement of the Uralita roof, consolidation and rehabilitation of the structure, and adaptation of the facilities. In the final phase, the access and facade of the Plaça de la Gardunya will also be renovated, which the council understands to be the one with the most neighborhood use.
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