La Central de Abasto de la Ciudad de México

July 3, 2010 9:13 AM

La Central de Abasto de la Ciudad de México "sprawls across a 327 hectare site on the eastern edge of the D.F., dwarfing fellow wholesale food markets such as Hunt’s Point (24 hectares), Tsukiji (23 hectares), or even the massive Rungis, outside Paris (232 hectares)."

"When the Central de Abasto was opened in 1982, approximately eighty percent of Mexico’s food supply passed through its 111 kilometres of passageways. In other words, an incredible four fifths of everything that every Mexican, from Cancun to Monterrey, ate every day passed through one single site in the nation’s capital."

"Even today, between twenty and thirty percent of the country’s food is sold at La Central."

posted by SpringAquifer (3 comments total)

What a curious way to cut watermelons! Interesting post!!
posted by .kobayashi. at 9:19 AM on July 3, 2010

Good grief, pic #2... how do those tractor-trailer trucks manage to get in & out of that parking lot when there's cars all crammed in there? I can't imagine how they meet delivery schedules much less get into the facility.
posted by crapmatic at 9:30 AM on July 3, 2010

I had heard of this place some years back in passing. A co-worker who had spent many years in the produce industry in Mexico mentioned it when we were discussing something about how we should best allocate our forklifts. He said that at this market, the cargadores organized against having forklifts, because it would put most of them out of work. One lift could quickly transport a hundred times as much as a person, over a far greater distance.
posted by azpenguin at 1:51 PM on July 3, 2010