The anniversary brought together more than a hundred people for a large barbecue and various festive events. Those attending included the then president of the Government of Aragon, Marcelino Iglesias; the then agriculture minister, Gonzalo Arguilé; and the then first deputy mayor of Zaragoza and vice president of Mercazaragoza, Carlos Pérez Anadón.
Iglesias highlighted the intention at the time to turn Mercazaragoza into “a major logistics platform for the food market in northern Spain.” The aim was to capitalize on Zaragoza’s position to connect the Cantabrian coast with the Mediterranean and the north with Madrid, while also moving beyond the production of raw materials toward their processing and distribution.
Arguilé, for his part, recalled the complex’s early steps and underscored its role in traceability within the meat sector. Mercazaragoza was then the largest slaughterhouse in northeastern Spain and had handled more than 36,000 tons of meat during the mad cow disease crisis.
The figures showed the scale the facility had reached: 8.3 million euros in turnover, 90 direct employees and another 300 indirect jobs, 38 wholesale suppliers and 130 companies operating at the slaughterhouse. In 2005 alone, 710,916 animals had been slaughtered, equivalent to 21,541 tons.
The anniversary celebration, the commemorative plaque and the plans linked to the Maritime Terminal shaped that day at Mercazaragoza. This is how we reported it in Aragón Digital 20 years ago, in the original article about the food platform’s 25th anniversary.
