TRADE AND MARKET I NG the I t’s a bristling crowd of people who gather at the famous Mercada Vega in the Chilean capital Santiago on an early Saturday morning. No less than a third of the Chilean population lives here, 5.5 million people, to give an idea of the number. Traditionally, whole families buy their fresh food at one of the many local markets that Santiago boasts. On the Mercada Vega, they shuffle forward with their bags on wheels through the dark passages of the enormous market. In the often brightly-illuminated market stalls, merchants sometimes loudly extol the virtues of their goods. There’s a wide range of potatoes here, which, of course, we’re looking for. It’s striking that the colour of the skin is predominantly red. Quickly and skilfully, the stallholders gather the desired orders, for which the Santiagoers then pay cash. At the end of March, the market prices were, on average, around 500 pesos per kilogram. A few kilometres away in the Providencia district, the Costanera Center stands out from a great distance. This 300-metre-high building is the tallest in South America and therefore a prestige object for the Chileans. In the building - which has sixty floors and offers a beautiful view of the city and its surroundings - there is a shopping mall that follows the American pattern. In addition to a wide range of shops and a huge food court where the leading brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC are housed, there is also a modern supermarket. The owner of this building is Cencosud SA, founded in 1960 by Horst Paulmann Kemna. The retail giant’s mission is to offer a multiformat supply. Launched in 1976 with supermarkets under the Jumbo name, this group has grown into a multinational company in Latin America. In addition to Jumbo, the group also includes other South-American supermarket chains such as Santa Isabel, Metro and Vea. Actually, this company is not related to our Dutch Jumbo. The Jumbo branch in the modern shopping centre is a beautifully-lit shop and offers a wide range of products comparable to a hypermarché in France. This branch has Potato World 2018 • number 1 13 Pagina 12
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