Market of opportunities: fruit and vegetables destined for pulping sold at discounts of up to 80 percent

The initiative, active in Florence, was created by Mercafir, the city's main wholesale agri-food market.

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Florence Opportunity Market 1

The Market of Opportunities was born with a simple idea: to sell to private individuals, at reduced prices, food products that the wholesalers of Mercafir, Florence's largest wholesale food market, have been unable to sell and are destined for waste, despite being perfectly fresh and fit for consumption. This reduces food waste and offers consumers savings. Prices are very affordable, with discounts ranging from 30 to 80 percent. All products undergo quality checks, are often perfectly ripe and tasty, and may have aesthetic characteristics less appreciated by the market (variant size, shape, or color). Several customers report that by frequenting the Market of Opportunities, they have reduced their fruit and vegetable shopping costs by a third of the usual amount.

The selection changes every opening day based on what's left after the wholesale market, and items are often sold in boxes or packages , rather than by weight, with a limited selection of individual items. Access to the Florence Market of Opportunities requires an annual membership card costing €15, but it's free in certain circumstances, such as those with an ISEE (Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator) of less than €6.000.

The Florence Market of Opportunities is located inside Mercafir, with entrance at Via dell'Olmatello 2, and is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 12:30 to 7:00 pm.

Typically you can find here:

  • Seasonal fruit: apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums, citrus fruits, strawberries, grapes, melons, watermelons, kiwis, etc.
  • Seasonal vegetables: tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, lettuce, fennel, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, onions, artichokes, broad beans and much more.
  • Fresh fish (when available): in recent years, fish market specials have also been offered, such as calamari, prawns, slipper lobster, dogfish, and other products based on what's available that day.

Although with different methods, in many Italian cities there are initiatives with very similar aims to the Market of Opportunities, which recover surplus food or sell products at reduced prices:

  • Turin – The Turin Agri-Food Center (CAAT) collaborates with third-sector organizations to recover unsold fruit and vegetables and distribute them for social purposes, even though there is no public market identical to the one in Florence.
  • Bologna – The CAAB (Bologna Agri-Food Center) promotes projects for the recovery of surplus food, primarily aimed at charities and people in need.
  • Milan – Through Sogemi, the wholesale fruit and vegetable market collaborates with organizations that recover unsold produce to combat food waste.
  • Rome, Verona, and other cities with large food markets have similar programs for recovering surplus produce, but the produce is generally donated to charities rather than sold directly to residents.

The images are taken from the Mercafir ScpA Facebook page

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