Hannover market manager studies Dénia's gastronomic and commerce model

The visit, part of a job shadowing exchange between administrations, took the German technical officer around various points in the city related to local commerce and culinary offerings. His itinerary included the weekly Friday street market on Vía, the Municipal Market facilities and the D*na Gastronomic Festival, as well as an introduction to the Bancalet project, a Marina Alta initiative that sparked his particular curiosity, according to Canfali.

The programme included an institutional welcome from Mayor Rafa Carrió and Councillor Raúl García de la Reina, as well as working meetings with the Commerce and Markets councillor, María José García, and technical staff from several municipal departments: International Relations, the Innovation and Creativity Office and the Strategy Office. It was precisely the council's International Relations department that coordinated the entire agenda for the stay.

Large-scale management

Schellwald is responsible in Hannover, a city of approximately 550,000 inhabitants, for a total of 25 weekly markets, to which are added a further 6 dedicated exclusively to local producers located within a maximum radius of 100 kilometres. Its Christmas market, one of the city's major landmarks, has more than 140 stalls and attracts, according to figures used by Dénia.com, close to 1,800,000 visitors; La Marina Plaza puts that footfall at 1.8 million people.

Despite managing such high figures, the German technical officer expressed his surprise at the capacity of a city the size of Dénia to carry forward such a high number of gastronomic and commercial projects simultaneously.

The sensory experience of the market

During his tour of Dénia's market stalls, Schellwald summarised with one idea the differentiating value of these kinds of spaces compared to other forms of commerce: "Tasting a product before buying it, you can only do that in a market".

From Hannover City Council emphasis was also placed on the pro-European character of this type of exchange between local administrations, which allow management experiences to be shared beyond national borders.