New Covent Garden Market, the UK’s largest horticultural wholesale market, has been crowned Britain’s Best Wholesale Market 2026.

The accolade was bestowed upon the Market during the Great British Market Awards ceremony at the NABMA Conference, in Birmingham, and presented by Julia Buckley MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Markets Group.

It recognises NCGM’s status as the capital’s unparalleled wholesale hub for world-class fruit, veg and flowers, and the best-located wholesale market for foodservice, hospitality and independent retail customers across London and the South East.

The market’s diverse mix of tenants of all shapes and sizes registered a combined turnover of around £944 million and employed in excess of 2,500 people in the last year. As the base for many of the UK”s best and most experienced multigenerational fresh produce businesses – fruit, vegetables, flowers, plants and foliage, and fine food and ingredients, NCGM is home to suppliers you can trust to be there for you, whenever you need them.

It is also home to the Food Exchange, modern office space that has attracted a buzzy mix of entrepreneurial food businesses, and Mission Kitchen, whose start-up members share commercial kitchen and co-working spaces on their way to becoming the next generation of food industry leaders.

And soon (2028), it will be the UK’s oldest and the newest wholesale market – a redevelopment programme, alongside regeneration of the local area, is creating a wholesale market fit to serve the independent retail and catering sectors for decades to come, within a new food, drink and flower quarter for London.

“We’re absolutely thrilled that the Market has been awarded this honour for 2026,” said Wanda Goldwag OBE, Chair of NCGM’s landlord Covent Garden Market Authority. “The wholesale market sector continues to be crucial to the food and floral supply chains across the UK and to be recognised as best in class at a time when we are making major upgrades and equipping our tenants for the future is especially gratifying.

“Thank you to the panel of judges and to NABMA for managing the award. It means a lot for a sector that often hides its brilliance under a bushel to receive recognition of this kind.”

On behalf of the tenants of NCGM, Gary Marshall, Chairman of Covent Garden Tenants’ Association, added: “The last few months have seen significant milestones reached in the redevelopment of the market and the culmination of our celebrations of the Market’s 50^th anniversary in Nine Elms. More importantly though, the tenants here have continued to deliver premium quality fresh produce and world class service levels, lifting the market’s turnover to unprecedented levels while working in partnership with some of the very best suppliers and customers around.

“We’ve already begun this year with the opening of a fantastic new Buyers’ Walk that opens up so much opportunity for the fruit and vegetable wholesalers here. So we will justifiably all feel proud of this accolade, while not only keeping our focus on living up to the standards required of Britain’s Best Wholesale Market, but ensuring we evolve and adapt to maintain our position at the forefront of this great industry.”

Pictured above, left to right: Andy Pidgen, Operations Director, Market Place Europe, Julia Buckley MP, Tommy Leighton and Garin Auld, the NCGM/CGMA Comms team, and NABMA President Councillor Chris Poulter