The auction

Mercolleida was entered by the ministry of agriculture in the official register of producer markets, in 1972. Since 1988 it is recognized as a representative market for the EU.

The main goals of the producer market for agricultural products in Lleida are:

• To bring more transparency into the market, by providing and improving the conditions in which transactions take place between farmers, dealers, industries and other operators in the agricultural food sectors.
• To provide the users with information about prices, tendencies and expectations of the market, together with references to other auctions and markets.
• To promote the concentration of the offer of agricultural products and stimulate the competition between buyers and sellers.
• To stimulate the characterisation and normalization of agricultural products according to agreements.
• To promote the sales of products by opening and looking for new markets.
• To facilitate the supply to shops and processing industries.
• To facilitate contacts to exterior markets.
• All other aspects that the board of "Llotja Agropecuària Mercolleida, S.A." considers convenient.
• In all cases all activities are related to the agricultural products that are characteristic for the region.

The days for public sales are:

• For fruit: during the harvest, every Tuesday and Friday, and on Fridays only during the rest of the year, at 11.30 am.
• For pigs: Fridays, from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm.
• For sheep: Prices quoted every Monday, and shows on every first and third Monday of every month, at 10.30 am.
• For cattle: Fridays, from 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm.
• For cereals: Fridays, from 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm.
• For fodder: Fridays, from 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm.

The council of pig prices

The board for the pig prices in Mercolleida is composed by the main operators of Spain in the production and slaughtering of pigs, with 50 % votes for each group. Mercolleida is the main market for pigs in Spain and has a recognized institutional influence of 18 percent.

Every week transactions take place between members of the board, with an average amount of 100,000 pigs. The quotations to which they decide serve as base for 90 percent of the purchases and sales of pigs in Spain. On the basis of it, the price of Mercolleida is the reference market for about 35 million pigs and 2.75 million tons of pork annually produced in Spain.

As to piglets, the quotations of the council of prices of Mercolleida refer to animals produced in the region and with a weight of 15 kilos.

Without any doubt, the regional production of piglets is insufficient in comparison with the available places for fattening pigs in the area around Lleida. The majority of piglets comes therefore from other provinces or they are imported. For that reason Mercolleida provides weekly information about the prices for piglets in other provinces, (Zamora, Navarra, Burgos, Segovia, Toledo) as well as of imported piglets (Holland, Germany, France...). Altogether, the prices of Mercolleida are representative of about 8 million pigs that are reared every year by the farms in the Lleida area.

The council of cattle prices

The quotations of the council for prices of cattle in Mercolleida are announced weekly by cattle dealers, slaughterhouses and intermediators who can be considered representative of the production in the Lleida-Huesca region and in an important part of Catalunya.

In addition, some of the main production units for veal calves of Spain are found here. The Mercolleida prices are considered representative of almost the entire market in Spain. In the Lleida-Huesca area there is a continuous number of about 200,000 bull calves which are slaughtered before 12 months of age.

The council of sheep prices

Mercolleida organizes "fairs" of sheep the first and the third Monday of every month, and gives recommended quotations of the market each Monday.

In almost all the producing zones of sheep in Spain, the markets hardly surpass the local or regional scope. The quotations of Mercolleida are representative of the most common operations of the production in the Segrià region which, with an amount of 100,000 heads, has the greatest concentration of sheep in Catalunya.

When we draw attention to the fact that the second important catalan region has half the amount of ewes, Mercolleida can be considered to be the most significant market for sheep in Catalunya.

The council of grains, concentrated feed and forages

Given the great number of animals in the zone (first places in the Spanish ranking of pig, beef cattle, birds and rabbits and first place of sheep in Catalunya), Lleida comprises the main concentration of factories of concentrated feed and forage industries in Spain (and also one of the major in Europe).

For that reason, in addition to the quotations of the cattle markets, Mercolleida follows the prices of the most common products used for the production of animal feed. In particular, grains, imported substitutes and dried forages.

The prices of Mercolleida in this aspect do not refer exclusively to the production in the region, but also to those of other areas. The prices are always announced as 'delivered in Lerida'.

The total production of the feed companies in Lleida is about 2.5 million tons a year. In forages, the irrigated area of Lleida-Huesca is the most important region for dried forages in Spain, the country that is also the first producer of these feeds in Europe. The industries of Lleida-Huesca produce over 700,000 tons of dried forages a year, more than half the Spanish production.

The council of fruit prices

The composition is divided proportionally between the commercial, associative and freezing organizations, the processing industries and the agricultural unions. In fact, all groups that operate in the production, commercialization and industrialization of fruit are represented.

The price quotations decided on by the council are considered representative of all the transactions that normally take place. In a normal harvest it accounts for 350,000 tons of apples, 250,000 of pears and 150,000 tons of peaches.

Since the production in Lleida area represents more than 40% of the Spanish production in pears and apples, as well as the 15-20 percent in peaches and nectarines, the quotations of Mercolleida can be considered representative of the prices of all Spanish producer markets.