Mercadona Debate: 1,800 Spanish Products Removed from Shelves

Mercadona and the 1,800 Spanish products leaving the shelves

A Valencian orange in August does not exist. This detail undermines much of the scandal: the circulating photo showing Argentine oranges in a Mercadona aisle is dated outside the Northern Hemisphere season, when Spanish fields simply cannot supply. From there, the matter complicates. The initial allegation—that the chain removed over 1,800 Spanish products to replace them with foreign own-brand items—mixes verifiable facts with undocumented suspicions, and consumer response, according to the discussion itself, is far more pragmatic than patriotic: look at the price before the origin label.

What the allegation says and what can be verified

The text that sparked the uproar claims Mercadona imports Argentine oranges year-round, that Hacendado olive oil is bottled by Portuguese firm Sovena—whose main shareholder, Roberto Centeno, is married to Juan Roig’s daughter—that some oil comes from Tunisia, and that Centeno has bought thousands of hectares of olive groves in Segarro. It also asserts the chain is the largest importer of foreign milk, sells frozen fish from Africa and South America in ports like Vigo—Europe’s leading fishing port—and has been removing products with Valencian designation of origin: chufa, Xixona and Alacant nougat, rice.

Parts of this narrative align with the logic of a low-cost distributor, while others fall apart. The company’s official response, reproduced in the discussion, states that 90% of its purchases are made from over 20,000 Spanish raw material producers. Several participants debunk the myth of 100% imported products with labels in hand: the semiskimmed Hacendado milk shown in a participant’s fridge is bottled by a Cantabrian subsidiary of a Basque dairy group, and Hacendado rice is supplied by Dacsa, a Valencian rice producer.

The real problem: margins, not flags

The core issue is not whether Mercadona brings Argentine oranges in August. It is that large-scale distribution has become accustomed to margins sustained only by countries with labor costs and sanitary standards far below European levels. This argument pervades the entire discussion and transcends a single chain: Carrefour, Lidl, and other white-label brands operate under the same logic. If Spanish products cannot compete on price, they leave the shelves. There is no mystery or conspiracy.

Some voices point out the consequence: a pogre loss of productive capacity—farm closures, offshoring of bottling, and growing dependence on imports in a strategic sector like food. Horchata is the most repeated example. Mercadona sold between 40% and 50% of all horchata consumed in Spain; if it stops buying chufa from the Valencian Designation of Origin, small producers feel the impact immediately. Valencian chufa is expensive and scarce—barely meeting the community’s consumption—so cheaper African chufa enters. The result is a different, cheaper, and for many, inferior horchata.

Milk at 50 cents and unfair competition

One of the most uncomfortable points is milk. It is claimed Mercadona sells cartons at just over 50 cents as a loss leader, below real production and processing costs. This practice forces other chains to pay less to farmers if they want to compete, pushing those who don’t comply toward closure. In Galicia, according to the narrative, the chain banned local brands like Río and Larsa. The detail has nuance: Río manufactures for Carrefour, so the ban is less about Galician products than direct competition.

Fish deserves a separate paragraph. In Vigo, with the port managing nearly half of Spain’s fishing, what is sold at Mercadona is not fresh or Galician: it is frozen fish from Africa or South America. Mussels and clams arrive from Chile, France, or Segarro. The paradox is hard to swallow for a land that lives by the sea.

Consumers are not stupid, they are poor

The discussion quickly moves to a more uncomfortable terrain: buyer responsibility. The dominant thesis is that people on modest salaries cannot afford to pay 30% more for local products. Demanding this effort from someone earning €800 or €1,000 is asking them to subsidize others’ profitability. The crisis did not start with white-label brands, some recall, but white-label brands have become the refuge for those who no longer make ends meet.

The counterargument is simple: if no one buys Spanish products, producing companies go bankrupt and lay off workers. Then the country loses productive capacity and becomes dependent on supply chains it does not control. It is the classic vicious cycle, and no one has found a way to break it without someone paying the bill.

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One unsettling fact remains. The chain that allegedly removes Valencian products from its shelves is the same one that boasts buying 90% from Spanish producers. Both can be true simultaneously. And that is, exactly, the trap of the debate.