Barcelona City Council and Mercabarna have signed an agreement to set up a FoodLab in the old La Escocesa industrial site. Specifically, the project will be located in the Shield warehouse, which has a surface area of ??slightly more than 2,000 square meters and is currently pending rehabilitation.
By signing this agreement, both parties want to revitalize the 22@Nord area, attract investment and talent, and guarantee the development of the new urban planning approach. The new FoodLab will have the latest technology and seeks to promote new FoodTech projects in the Catalan capital to become a reference laboratory in the international agri-food industry sector, thus promoting the birth of new companies.
This project also wants to turn Barcelona into an important point of this industry in Catalonia. The region currently has 185 FoodTech projects, according to the ACCIO directory, and some of the start-ups present in the territory, such as Heura, are gaining a lot of weight within the sector. In addition, the arrival of foreign companies such as the British Ocado and the holding of events such as the Alimentaria fair in the city are also helping to achieve this goal.
Currently, Barcelona is the sixth most important city in the world in FoodTech industries, behind only New York, Boston and San Francisco (United States), Berlin (Germany) and London (United Kingdom), as confirmed by the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2021. In this way, the city surpasses other major metropolises such as Amsterdam, Shanghai or Chicago.
