In July last year it started in Estella at the Plaza! the project, a monthly market for local products and regional producers produced in a sustainable manner. “The fair is held on the second Saturday of each month in the morning. It is a direct selling market in which producers and processors of products participate,” explains Ester Montero, member of the Traverse Association, who provides technical assistance to the trade fair.

Local and sustainable

Although it's a local product market, it's not just that! Project: The products offered must meet the minimum criteria. “What is done on Tierra Estella has priority, also what is made ecological. In other words, producers who work in organic production have a priority of market share over others,” explains Montero. It added that more than half of the 33 producers currently on the market offer organic products.

The organisers set out a number of criteria which, by way of a token, must be met by products which do not come from organic production: small family productions, those engaged in extensive livestock farming or those using native breeds are given priority. “It’s important for us that it’s not just a local product market.Beyond that, we’re looking for a sustainable market.”

Trade Show to Fill Shopping Basket

A year ago, when the project was launched, there were already 22 producers participating in the initiative. In one year, the number of producers has increased greatly and Montero relates this development to the good response of the market. “Plazara! It doesn't have a lot of people coming together in the Middle Ages markets, but it has something more important: people come with the shopping cart, really buying for home." One of the reasons the fair settled on Saturdays was because it allowed younger people to also make their purchases there, and it seems to be working.

Legumes, vegetables, fruits, oil, eggs, wine, beer, bread, sweets, truffles, cheese, nuts, sausages, preserves… The citizenship of Tierra Estella can access the Plaza of all! Market. If the department stores moved the buyers to the peripheries, the project aims to turn them around and recover the center of Estella. “This fair offers the opportunity to revive the local economy: to promote small trade and small production and to enhance the activity linked to the territory.”