Mercapesca is a platform developed by AUTEC, a company that supplies electronic auction systems for fish selling and a pioneer in its implementation in this country.

The portal interconnects electronic auctions for fresh and frozen fish. It is intended to be a platform open to other platforms, to allow for service exchanges and to broaden the market of associated fish markets.

The purpose of this service-offering website is to provide real time and archived information and services to the professionals and consumers of the fish auctions market.

Another purpose of the portal is to give coverage and support to the Internet remote system, MASFIT. Buying is done by accessing each particular auction that interests the buyer, who competes with local buyers actually present at the auctions. The auction, the characteristics of selling, and the access permissions are controlled independently by each market.

The MASFIT system allows buyers to consider the set of associated auctions as one single auction, for which they will develop buying strategies depending on their needs. This tools enables them to send a virtual buyer agent to each auction that interests them, to do their purchasing in a coordinated manner with the rest of their agents.

Mercapesca aspires to be a prestigious showcase and information centre for the fishing sector, and therefore publicises the different commercialised species, their origin, fishing technique, the characteristics of the species of each zone, and so on. At the same time, Mercapesca aims to be a discussion forum and meeting place for professionals of the sector and consumers.

The associated fish markets and cold storage plants are totally independent, and they decide the platform services that they will participate in. The portal has two levels of information access: a restricted level for registered professionals in the sector, and another for the general public. Access to sensitive and customised data will be given through secured access servers.