Mercadona receives a new package of aid
Mercadona confirmed this August that it has received a new package of support from the Government of the Canary Islands to offset price overruns caused by the transport of products from the mainland to the islands’ ports. The company has channelled €3.34 million in insular compensation funds and food supply assistance between the first quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026. The files processed by the Government of the Canary Islands and the Ministry of Transport, partly co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), aim to ease the logistics penalty created by island remoteness and prevent the charter-related extra cost from being passed on to prices in the archipelago’s shopping basket.
Agri-food compensation via the REA scheme
The bulk of the amount received by the company comes from the Specific Supply Regime (REA), a compensatory mechanism framed within measures for distance and islandness (POSEI) under the European Union. The funding is explicitly intended to subsidise the import of essential agri-food products to ensure supply to the Canary market on competitive terms. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company absorbed a total of €1,524,687.78 through this route, split across three allocations of €502,985.38 in March, €550,625.19 in June, and €471,077.21 in September.
Ongoing public injection in 2026
Public transfer flows in favour of the supermarket chain kept a similar volume throughout 2026. The regional administration formalised a payment of €451,623.18 for the first quarter on March 13. This settlement was followed by a €556,216.38 allocation granted on June 12 to cover the second quarter, completing the provisional package with a resolution for €215,001.11 issued on August 5, 2026 for the third quarter. Over the first eight months of 2026, the REA compensations granted to Mercadona total €1,222,840.67.
Subsidy for maritime and air freight
Alongside the supply-regime contribution, the company also receives the state compensation for freight transport regulated by Royal Decree 552/2020. On December 23, 2025, the central administration approved the grant of €595,282.97 to the supermarket chain to compensate for the logistical cost of maritime and air traffic of Annex I products under the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU operated during 2024.
Costs of insular distribution
Mercadona’s inclusion in this support framework seeks to neutralise freight rates and the increase in distribution costs across the inter-island network. Current legislation makes these compensations conditional on beneficiary companies passing through in full the subsidy they receive in the final price paid by consumers on the islands, thereby mitigating the impact of islandness on the shopping basket.
The entry Mercadona receives €3.3 million in public aid for shipping to the Canary Islands from the mainland was first published on canarymaritime.com.
