When it comes to fish market, people usually think about the cities near coast. But, Marca Madrid, the fish market of Madrid is the second biggest fish market of the world and also it’s the biggest fish market of Europe. Being a part of a huge complex, this fish market, which is the second biggest after Tokyo Tsukiji fish market, contains meat, chicken, vegetable, and fruit markets within. Total area of this market is 176 hectares and the fish market has 42.600 square meters and 222.000 tones of sea products is sold in this market in a year.
We set our alarms to 03:30 in order to visit this fish market in full and witness the fish sales and we started our journey in the market at 04:00 in the morning. Our trip was highly cheerful even the weather was freezing. The tourists actually cannot visit the fish market in Madrid unlike the highly touristic fish market in Tokyo. the cleanness is one of the most important feature of Madrid fish market. There is not an intense fish smell in the market and an outskirt is very clean.
Our visit to the fish market on the night which connects Sunday to Monday came up to the day of mainly culture fish selling and delivery. Hunting fishes generally takes place in the market on the night that connects Monday to Tuesday. We have honored to see that both bream and bass is Turkish fish. We were happy to see that our productions are presented and receive appreciation from the fishers.
After completing our trip in Madrid fish market, we turned back to our hotel, but after having a coffee break. We also had a chance to visit a supermarket before we took our planet to Barcelona where we would visit our second fish market. You can recognize that Spanish people love fish products when you see the fish aisle of the supermarket. You can find every kind of fish you can think of in a medium size supermarket between streets.
We arrived to Barcelona after a short flight. We got up early in the morning in order to see our breams and brass coming to this market. Although it’s not as big as Madrid fish market, Barcelona fish market also has 24.000 square meters of area and hosts 52 fish wholesalers. It’s in a market hall with 90 hectares like the one in Madrid. Barcelona is a Mediterranean city unlike Madrid and this characteristics can be felt in the fish market. You can see every kind of fish and every kind of consumers here. It’s sometimes problematic to walk because of the crowd.
Like Madrid fish market, Turkish bream and brass dominate the market in Barcelona. Customers are very happy with the quality of the products and with the fishes sold even before they are unloaded from the trucks. Spain will be an important market with regards to fish consumption per person. It will be extremely important for our industry to export our products with high quality to this market and to be a brand there.
We have completed Spain customer trips pleasantly after a two long day which have been passed with freezing air and tired legs. I also want to share few interesting places that we had chance to visit in this journey :)
The place in Madrid is called Mercade de san Miguel. It’s actually a market place. That is a place where you can buy fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, cheese and alike. But you can have a chance to taste the products as a result of the concept that has been designed. You can buy and eat/drink products such as little tapas, fired fishes, fruit salads, and wine. The restaurant in the city center of Madrid is El Madrono where you can find the delicious local Spanish food with fair prices.
