What, in your view, is the objective of London Markets’ Month?

The overall aim to is increase trade in the wholesale markets. But, firstly, we are trying to promote the markets as an important part of London’s economy and of the food supply chain - particularly of fresh, local and regional food. The time is exactly right for this; food is very high on the agenda, everybody is engaged and markets have a real role to play in delivering the objectives of the London Food Strategy.

How did it all come about?

It really kicked off with the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) report on the future of London’s wholesale markets, which it undertook as part of its review of the London Plan. In effect, they blew the dust off Nicholas Saphir’s report of a few years earlier and brought in consultants to update things. They didn’t come up with anything particularly new, apart from a few things around the regeneration of the sector, and they, like Nick, ended up recommending that there should be three composite wholesale markets in London. That’s alright in principle and in the long term but, while the theory is great, the practicalities are extremely complex and no-one wants to lose the history and traditions that go with the current locations.

Last year, the GLA also published a report on street and retail markets in London, which shed light on how little Londoners knew about the markets operating in their 32 boroughs. This report concluded that the Mayor should strongly support 100 markets, as well as his existing support for 100 open spaces in London. While the number they chose was a little unfortunate, as there are already more than 180 markets in London, the principle - that markets should be supported and given a higher profile as a vital driver both of urban regeneration and London’s economy - is right.

After the publication of both reports, I suggested to my counterparts at the Covent Garden Market Authority (CGMA), Hounslow Borough Council (Western International), and Borough Market that we should meet up more often and discuss some of the issues in more depth. I don’t see us as competing with each other in most respects. New Spitalfields and New Covent Garden, for instance, are not really in competition with each other, as they largely focus on different sectors of the market, though there is, of course, a good deal of friendly rivalry. From these meetings, it became clear that we were all behind the idea of promoting the wholesale markets in a more co-ordinated fashion.

It was decided that, as lots of other organisations have ‘days’ and ‘months’ to publicise their causes, it is a good time to do the same for the wholesale markets.

Why October?

There were a number of existing events that we were able to work around in September and October, including the National Fruit Show, the Restaurant Show and a public National Fishmongers’ Federation skills competition. We used these events to increase our profile, and we finished the month with our own event, the inaugural London Markets’ Symposium, at City Hall on October 23.

Who did you attract to the event on October 23?

We invited all those with an interest in the management of the wholesale and retail markets in each of the London boroughs to the event, so that we could impress upon them the role of markets in their local economies, urban regeneration and facilitating healthy diets. Interestingly, the City of London Corporation is the only local government authority in London which has its own, dedicated markets committee - elsewhere, markets may come under property management, economic development, or some other function, and that just about sums up how seriously markets are taken elsewhere around the capital.

Eventually, we want to raise the profile of both wholesale and retail markets. This is a prototype year but, as retail markets are vital customers of the wholesale markets, it is not difficult to work out that if they grow, they will buy more from the wholesale markets and we can create a virtuous circle.

Tenants are not the focal point of this year’s activities. Could this change in the future?

This is very much to the benefit of tenants in all of our markets and it will be great in future years if we can see more co-operation between landlords and tenants. Landlords understandably are in a better position to take a long-term view of things. Tenants are more concerned with where their supplies are coming from and how to deal with the day-to-day demands of their customers. Together, we can enjoy a fruitful symbiotic relationship.

I wrote to all of our tenants’ associations a couple of months ago and hoped they would give it their support. We are not holding events as such, but we would like the tenants to be behind what we are trying to achieve, particularly by being represented on October 23. They can make a real contribution. They are the people who do the business and, as such, they carry real weight.

Will this herald a period of greater co-operation between tenants from Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Spitalfields?

They all tend to think of themselves in terms of the separate commodities in which they trade, and they are, of course, geographically separated. However, on a broader front, we are trying to reinvigorate the Association of London Markets, which has been pretty moribund for the last couple of years, and make it a real voice for all London markets.

There have been some difficult patches in the relationship between the City of London Corporation and the CGMA in recent years. Are they consigned to the past and can markets work together on a long-term basis?

Yes, I would think so. We went through the judicial review process and the judgement went the way it went. Although Covent Garden was permitted to trade in meat and fish, it is not permitted to set up rival meat and fish markets and is certainly not competing directly with our markets. I think the attention has switched to competing against wholesalers outside the markets.

There is a lot of competition out there, and it is a tough old world for traders at the moment. The more we can do to help, the better. If we can work together to be a bit smarter, to reduce impact of the competition from outside the markets, all tenants will benefit. We have to aim to increase our overall share of the food business in London, rather than continuing to re-adjust the slices of the same-sized cake. The first task is to recognise that the real competition, the enemy if you would like to phrase it in that way, lies outside our ranks, and not within.