Boqueria, the best market in the world, seeks its model between neighbors and tourists: «When a client stops coming, I know he has no relay»

«We have moved to the new facilities to offer a better service and quality. Meanwhile, the Boqueria market stop will be closed a season. We will open the offer a bit. We will reform it and return with more desire than ever.» With a brief statement, the historic Petràs mushroom stop announced that it should reorient its business. Petràs responsible denounced that Boqueria, recognized as the best market in the world, is oriented to tourism and rapid consumption and its product did not just fit. The temporal closure of Petràs activated all the alarms about the present and future of the most famous market in Catalonia. A market that has been sold to tourism according to some, while others continue to think that it has not forgotten, or should not forget, to the Barcelona client. The country has asked the paradists to define the fixed photo of the Boqueria and count where the market is going. Know the market as if it were your home and disagree with the negative image that is taking place of this business set. «If we start talking in negative, let's start with the Rambla. Because of the works, this June has dropped the influx to the market by 10%,» he warns. But he announces that on September 17 an assembly will be held to decide where the Boqueria is going: “My bet is that we must fight to maintain the essence. We are going to propose a pact with the merchants so that in addition to changing the roof, modernizing the island of fish and the sinks and making a true access door in the Plaza de la Gardunya we commit ourselves to each stop has a minimum of 40% of fresh product”.Sale of fish in the Boqueriamasimiliano Malocriel Mercado was inaugurated in 1840. «Something good should be because she is 185 when today 85% of stores close in less than five years,» says more. There are 175 open stops (200) in 4,800 meters, 1,300 workers and 25 million visitors a year (between 60,000 and 90,000 per day). Soley fruits and vegetables have been in the market for more than half a century. Eduard Soley is proud that the seventh generation of his family saga remains in the Boqueria. «They talk about whether tourists yes or no. Today everyone does tourism and you have to change the mentality,» he suggests. But, as president, he does not throw the towel: «There are many who will tell you that in Boqueria there are two markets. One for neighbors and one for tourists. I believe in a hybrid market for everyone. In Catalonia there are eight million Catalans, imagine that they would come to Boqueria once a year. We have to achieve it.» Tourists in the Boqueriamasimiliano Misocrirosa Millán is the owner of Morilla Fruites, one of the fruit shops that does not sell juices or, barely, fruit cut for tourists. «I do not juices but 80% or 90% of my collection is given to me tourism. The problem we have in Boqueria is to constantly justify how we make a living,» he summarizes. Millán is one of those who defends tourism among its clientele. «There are colleagues who leave the market, they have earned life very well, they sell the stop at a magnificent price and then speak badly of the Boqueria. We are in the most successful market in Spain. We make a living and give work,» he says. Millán's opinion is similar to that of other paradists. Albert, by Elisa Queviures, knows that the business that Runs has been open since 1949. «The neighbor comes from 9 in the morning to 11. Then it is so complicated to reach the market that you would have to give them a prize. I do not think we have to give up food to take, but it must always be of very high quality,» he sentenced. POSTERS IN ENGLISH IN THE BOQUERIAMASIMILIANO MINOCRILAS PESCADERÍAS are the ones that have more complicated to reach the tourist and many complain about looking like “figures” of the photographs that visitors hang on social networks. Puri Albiol, from Puri Pescadería, points out that the great enemy of Boqueria are the works of the Rambla. «We would have to give them an award because they are still buying us. It is true that fewer neighbors come, but many chefs to buy us also come. They know that the product is good,» he takes pride. Marc Besora, from the Bessora Frucetería, does not trust tourism as a client and recognizes that his neighborhood clientele is getting smaller. «The big problem began with supermarkets. People have to come, compare prices and buy. If you have nowhere to compare they do not trust and buy elsewhere,» laments Besora. In Olivas Francesc, Imma Roquet admits that the neighbor costs, more and more, to come to Boqueria. «I would like to have more neighbors, but I can't live from a client who comes only once a month.» Something similar thinks Montserrat Homs, of the Carnicería La Moianesa, specialized in pork. «The problem is from the city model. When a client stops coming, I know that he has no relay. It seems that there is no market culture and we have to continue living,» says homs. In the coming months the infrastructure works must begin with which the central part (the fishing) of the most famous market in the city must be reached, sponge some corridors, make a larger entrance through the Plaza de la Gardunya installation fibercement. They will be extended until 2027. «What we want is that in these reforms the market does not close. We cannot lose a client. If you close, life is sought in other places and, in the end, they leave,» maintains the president of the most iconic square in Catalonia.