By the entrance to the Mercapalma wholesale market is an area known as 'Situat de Productors'. It is where small farmers in Mallorca can sell direct to small retailers, most of whom operate neighbourhood shops, and it is totally dedicated to local produce.
It is unique to Spain in that no other central wholesale market has an equivalent. But it has been in decline. Between fifty and eighty farming concerns now go there, and the Camp Mallorquí cooperative, which runs this specific market, wants to revitalise and add value to it. The president of the cooperative, Miquel Gual, says that "this model of local trade needs to be fostered", while there is also a need to stop losing money from operating the market.
Camp Mallorquí and the Mercapalma manager, Jeroni Barbón, are seeking a meeting with Palma town hall. Gual explains that Mercapalma supports a revitalisation and he hopes that the town hall will assist in order to ensure that "no one loses money". "Something needs to be done as we don't want the Situat to disappear."
Meanwhile, the matter is being raised in the Balearic parliament. Més have registered a motion, stressing the importance of the Situat for the farming sector and for local trade. The party wants the town hall and the Balearic government to undertake a campaign to promote the market, to arrive at an arrangement whereby its management is affordable and to adopt an approach to farming which is genuinely "strategic"