On the 12th and 13th of November, the Spanish-Icelandic Chamber of Commerce  is organising a trade delegation to Madrid, Spain.

An interesting 2-day programme is offered, where visits will be made to companies in technology, food and financial sectors.

For example, we will visit the European headquarters of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, go to Ernst and Young, where we will experience and get to know their EY Wavespace flagship centre. Then we will visit Ahumados Dominguez, that specializes in gourmet seafood products, in one of their three stores within the El Corté Inglés in Madrid .  Ahumados Domingez is a daughter company of Iceland Seafood and has stores in various El Corté Inglés supermarkets throughout Spain.

A part of the programme will be a grand Icelandic evening event, where Business Iceland, the Icelandic Embassy in Paris and Spain, and Icelands Minister for Foreign Affairs, Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, will participate along with key figures in Spanish business, media, and the institutional sectors. T

A more detailed programme by clicking here (Subject to change).

The cost of participating in the trade delegation is 30,000 ISK or 200€. Included in the participation fee are the programme, meals during the programme, and other related expenses. Taxis will be used to transport participants between locations, but some visits can be reached on foot. Participants pay for transportation costs themselves.

Please note that participants book their own flights and accommodation as convenient.

Register to participate in the delegation by clicking here.

It is worth mentioning that there is a limited number of participants for the delegation. Seats can be reserved by registering.

Air connections from Iceland to Spain are very good, with direct flights from Keflavík to 7 Spanish destinations on the mainland and the Canary Islands. Of these, 3 airlines fly directly to Madrid. Spain is one of Iceland's most important trading partners, with 56% of total foreign trade in 2022 conducted with Spain.

The city of Madrid leads in job creation in Spain, with one in four new jobs created last year. The city's working population now exceeds 3.6 million people, of whom about 260,000 are dedicated to the technology sector, accounting for 32% of the total in Spain. It is no wonder that many of the world's largest companies have chosen Madrid as the location for their European headquarters, given its excellent transportation and logistics, multicultural working environment (26% of the working population are foreigners), and high level of education with 19 universities in the city.

The labour cost in Spain is €24.6 per hour, which is 20% lower than the EU average (€31.8). The minimum wage is €1,134 per month (14 payments), and the average labour cost is €2,359.38.