In a few days, on December 31, the city of Cologne will close its wholesale market in Raderberg – after more than 85 years. It has to make way for the urban development project 2Parkstadt Süd." It is the end of a decades-long debate, and retailers are now facing a desperate situation. "Things seem very difficult for us at the moment. I am very concerned," says Berdan Dugan (22) from Euro Paradies Cologne GmbH told the Kölner Rundschau. "I don't know what will happen next, because we haven't found a suitable warehouse yet." Barbaros Avsar (60) from BOSPORUS Handelsgesellschaft mbH sees the situation in a similar light. "For years, we were promised that a new wholesale market would be built in Marsdorf and that we could move there. We were strung along and put off again and again. And then suddenly we were told, 'you have to figure out how to manage on your own'."
Unlike his colleagues, Norbert Heep, owner of the traditional company of the same name and first chairman of the Interessengemeinschaft (IG) Kölner Großmarkt, has already found a new home at the flower wholesale market in Riehl. The same applies to the dozen or so traders at the new ABA fresh produce center in Gremberghoven. "The fact that we have been forced to spread out across Cologne and the surrounding area will lead to more traffic in the city," predicts Heep. "Until now, restaurateurs and food retailers could buy everything they needed at the wholesale market. In the future, they will have to drive across the whole city to do so."
Want to find out more about Cologne's wholesale market? Click here for the WDR report (in German).
For more information:
https://www.koelner-grossmarkt.de/
