New Covent Garden Market: a buyer's guide for UK restaurants
New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms is London's main wholesale fruit, veg and flower market — the engine room of how the capital eats. Here's what it is, how the city's wholesale markets work, and how to get market-level prices without driving a van there at 3am.
London's wholesale markets
New Covent Garden Market handles a huge share of the produce that feeds London's restaurants, with hundreds of wholesalers under one roof. Alongside it, Smithfield has long been the historic meat market and Billingsgate the fish market, with New Spitalfields another major fruit-and-veg market in the east.
These markets set the tempo for fresh prices in the capital, but they reward early hours and volume — not the small independent who can't send someone before service.
How the market actually works
Traditional market buying means going in person, very early, negotiating by the pallet, and hauling it yourself. It punishes the small kitchen that can't commit to case quantities or send a van at dawn.
That's the gap group buying closes: pooled demand gets market-level pricing, and the product is delivered to you.
Getting market prices without the trip
Foodomarket sources from suppliers in the London wholesale ecosystem and shows the wholesale price up front. You see today's rate per kilo and per case, order online, and get delivery — the market's pricing without the 3am logistics.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small restaurant buy at New Covent Garden Market?
Directly, it's hard — it rewards early hours and volume. Group buying gives small independents market-level wholesale prices with delivery instead.
Where do London wholesale prices come from?
Prices move daily with supply, season and weather across markets like New Covent Garden. Foodomarket shows live supplier prices you can act on without the trip.