Sustainable Food

The function room at the Bloc4BCN hosted the first Agròpolis session of the year on Tuesday, 14 January, with a meeting on the municipal public procurement instruction, which introduced the sustainability criteria in Barcelona City Council’s procurement of dinner-hall, catering and vending services, also offering a chance to share experiences and to discuss and reflect on its application. This instruction was approved in December 2022 and has been in force since March 2023.

The session began with a technical explanation by Barcelona City Council and the Tàndem Social cooperative, which acts as the technical advisory secretariat for the roll-out of the instruction, detailing the environmental sustainability criteria and social criteria established by the instruction. Participants then shared their impressions with a sustainable breakfast before the session rounded off with a round table featuring stakeholders in public food procurement from different parts of the food chain, from producers to procurement agents, sharing experiences and reflecting together with all those attending.

The participants in this final activity, moderated by Núria Casajuana from La Troca Serveis Jurídics, were: Oriol Comallonga (Dotzena), Joan Maria Ribas (XAMEC), Sergi Claramunt (Unió de Pagesos de Terra Pagesa), Alejandro Guzmán (Ecocentral) and Glòria Navarro (Municipal Institute of Social Services).

Challenges in implementing the instruction

Thanks to the discussion between those attending we were able to discover the most highly regarded aspects, as well as the challenges in implementing the instruction, such as the value of the budgetary item for food in tendering processes.

For instance, the session covered the need to audit technical criteria so that pricing does not carry so much weight in these processes, the risk of producers being unsuccessful with tendering if providers purchase at below-market prices and the strong increase in inflation in food costs in long-term contracts, plus what the City Council is doing to introduce elements in the procurement process to address this.

Participants also reflected on the importance of knowing the origin of food through traceability and how the administration is guaranteeing that the criteria set out in clauses are met, as well as an estimation of the impact of the instruction being carried out in the different areas of the City Council.

Finally, the proposals set out also include tendering processes, taking into account red tape, as being able to reserve some elements for small local producers linked to the short supply circuit.

A future committed to sustainability

The session was very successful in terms of both those attending and the learning shared. For further progress in the application of this regulation, Barcelona City Council will continue to offer training and advice to help interested companies and organisations to meet sustainability criteria.