Food distribution is an important element of territorial vertebration and economic development in rural areas. This is the main idea that they have highlighted ASEDAS, Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-Service and Supermarkets, and ASUCAM, Association of Supermarkets of Castilla-La Mancha, at the Supermarket and Territorial Vertebration Day in Castilla-La Mancha, opened by Francisco Martínez Arroyo, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development of the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha, has taken place in the Parador de Cuenca.
Francisco Martínez Arroyo stressed that 47% of consumers choose supermarkets to buy products and, for the regional government, it is essential that the linear ones are those that are produced in the region; mainly, those covered by one of the 47 existing quality figures, which will be grouped under an umbrella brand that will be presented this year and for which it has requested the support of the distribution to make it known.
Also participating in the conference were Jesus Alique, commissioner of the Demographic Challenge of Castilla-La Mancha, and Sara Bianchi, technical general secretary of SSPA – Sparsely Populated Areas of Southern Europe–. Jesús Alique listed some of the fundamental pillars to attract population to rural areas and ensure equal rights: access to housing, transport, broadband and economic activity. Sara Bianchi, for her part, set the example of Scotland, which has managed to settle population in rural areas thanks to good basic services and the creation of stable jobs.
The objective of ASEDAS and ASUCAM is to contribute so that the basic need to have access to a complete, varied, safe and competitively priced meal also reaches all people who choose to live in small and remote municipalities. In fact, the entire Spanish population has at least one supermarket less than 15 minutes from their homes, which implies that the phenomenon of "food deserts" does not occur in Spain. Of the total openings of self-services and supermarkets in the last five years, 22.6 percent are located in municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants, many of them in the form of franchises supported by the purchasing centers belonging to ASEDAS, Euromadi and Ifa .
The network of food distribution establishments, 23,519 throughout Spain, can be compared to the network of pharmacies or schools *. The province of Cuenca, the most depopulated in Spain together with Soria and Teruel, has a ratio of inhabitants per supermarket of 1,470, compared to 1,686 in Castilla-La Mancha and 2,028 of the average in Spain. This means that the effort to maintain a supermarket in rural areas is greater than in urban environments and reaffirms the commitment of supermarkets to the rural world.
Both Ignacio García Magarzo, general director of ASEDAS, and Rafael Ruiz Alonso, president of ASUCAM, have stressed that the reasons for the high capillarity of the supermarket network lie in the strength of the regional chains that, helped by the purchasing centers, They introduce an element of balance in the chain that allows them to compete in assortment, quality and price. In addition, it is worth highlighting the impact on the rural economy both through the creation of direct employment and the support to local producers. These find proximity marketing channels for their products that, in turn, provide a differentiating element to regional supermarkets.
In this sense, María Ángeles Rosado, from ASAJA Cuenca, defended the need for a strong and collaborative value chain such as the one that has been built in Spain as “an inescapable factor to boost population fixation in these areas”.
Cuenca has hosted the first of a series of debates on food distribution and territorial vertebration that will continue in the Communities of Castilla y León, Aragón and Andalucía.
* 28,531 schools in the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the Ministry of Education; 22,046 pharmacies in 2017, according to the College of Pharmacists.
