€30M investment to modernize the terminal through which 80% of Spain's coffee enters

BarcelonaBefore it reaches your cup each morning, coffee goes through many stages, from planting in distant countries like Brazil or Vietnam to roasting in nearby factories and its sale on supermarket shelves. During this long process, a crucial stage takes place in the port of Barcelona, ​​where the terminal receives the raw coffee beans and prepares them for shipment to the roasters.

These facilities, the Barcelona International Terminal (BIT), are the gateway for 80% of the coffee beans that arrive in Spain, processing 210,000 tons annually. This makes Barcelona the second most important port in Europe for this trade, second only to Antwerp (Belgium).

The terminal was established through a partnership between the local company Masiques and the Swiss multinational Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS). It was inaugurated in the 1980s, when trade in that product was liberalized in Spain, and will now be modernized with a €30 million investment. "It's another step in this success story," said José Miguel Masiques, CEO of Masiques and second generation of the family business, during the project presentation. The Barcelona International Terminal (BIT) will be updated and, to that end, will have to relocate. In such a sought-after space as the port of Barcelona, ​​its departure will be key to allowing another company, the Catalan firm Elian, acquired by the US group Viserion, to grow in the current facilities, which occupy nearly 63,000 square meters on the Álvarez de la Campa dock.

The new BIT (Border Information Terminal) will be built on the port's ring road, on a plot of more than 53,000 square meters. The Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium (CZFB) will hold the management concession for the land for the next 50 years, given that the terminal has the fiscal status of a customs free zone. Construction is expected to last until mid-2027, with the CZFB and the Port of Barcelona sharing the investment.

"It is the most important coffee terminal in southern Europe, and the new project should allow it to maintain this leading position," said the president of the Port of Barcelona, ​​José Alberto Carbonell. This is also influenced by the fact that Spain is the second largest manufacturer of instant and decaffeinated coffee in Europe, as well as the third largest producer of roasted coffee.

Although they will have less space, the future facilities will have the same capacity, with the ability to store up to 50,000 tons of green coffee. They will also allow for doubling current production capacity and automating processes, as well as incorporating new ones to reach more customers, such as cleaning and blending the coffee beans. "We need to reach more factories," Masiques pointed out, with a focus on increasing their presence in France and North Africa and entering markets like Switzerland. Currently, the terminal employs between 80 and 100 people, and they expect to expand their workforce in this new phase.