CIMALSA – the Government of Catalonia’s company in charge of promoting, developing and managing freight transport and logistics infrastructures – together with Mercabarna and the multimodal mobility and logistics cluster In-move by Railgrup, have signed a cooperation agreement to encourage companies based at Mercabarna to move their freight towards transport modes with a lower carbon footprint.
As part of the Logistics Strategy for the Internationalisation of the Catalan Economy (ELIEC) and with the target of reducing carbon emissions by 30 per cent, the three parties have committed to making their resources available to companies operating in Barcelona’s central wholesale market, starting with the fruit and vegetable sector.
Among the concrete actions to be developed under this agreement are:
Sharing knowledge and experience in transport and the implementation of technology applied to logistics, with the aim of optimising the supply chain and promoting sustainability.
Actively involving wholesale business associations through strategic meetings, in order to engage them in the project and secure support for the planned measures.
Analysing current transport routes operated by Mercabarna companies to identify those that could be optimised through more efficient transport models.
Assessing the potential for rail intermodality to determine which routes could benefit from incorporating rail transport to improve sustainability and profitability.
Through this initiative, CIMALSA will make available to Mercabarna companies its expertise in supporting businesses with the transition from road to rail freight, with the backing of Railgrup.
Pilot tests are also planned to combine cargo from different companies based at Mercabarna in order to evaluate options for optimising the supply chain.
The agreement was signed by Ignasi Gómez-Belinchón, director of the In-move by Railgrup cluster; Pablo Vilanova Montagut, general director of Mercabarna; and Carmen Ruiz Aguinaga, general director of CIMALSA.
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Ignasi Gómez-Belinchón stated: “At the In-move by Railgrup cluster, we have committed and continue to commit to a multimodal, multi-product and multi-client strategy in which rail plays a vital role in decarbonising logistics transport and contributing to the sustainability of the territory. Food distribution and its volumes can become a key link in Europe.”
Pablo Vilanova added: “At Mercabarna we believe the future of food distribution depends on more sustainable and efficient transport adapted to the needs of fresh products. Rail represents a major opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint and ensure logistics that is more environmentally friendly, without compromising quality, speed of service or business competitiveness. This agreement is a first step towards making rail intermodality a reality for the agri-food sector.”
For her part, Carmen Ruiz highlighted: “The importance of having partners such as Mercabarna and In-move by Railgrup to strengthen the multimodal consultancy that CIMALSA is developing with several companies in the country to get freight onto rail. It is a significant step, but not the last we will take this year.”
The agreement has a duration of two years, renewable for another two, with the intention of extending it. It also explicitly stipulates that it is non-exclusive, meaning that the experience can be applied to other companies and economic sectors.
