Paper ones
Most PLU stickers are plastic film. Paper, cardboard and even tissue or textile labels exist, and they are the ones people ask about first.
Swaps on the first Saturday, Ruzafa
Every fruit sticker has a number.
Bring yours to swap.
0102
0304
Read a sticker
Four digits, sometimes five.
That number is a PLU code. The till uses it to tell one kind of fruit from another, and organic from conventional, without anyone guessing.
- 01
3000s and 4000s are conventional. Four digits, handed out at random, so 4011 says nothing about bananas by itself. It just always means yellow bananas.
- 02
A 9 in front means organic. 4011 becomes 94011. Press the toggle to swap it on the sticker.
- 03
83000 to 84999 were kept for GMO produce. Growers never used them, so they were opened up for everything.
- 04
Since 2006 a small DataBar barcode can sit under the code, so a scanner can read it instead of someone typing it in.
4011 Bananas4012 Navel oranges4046 Hass avocados4131 Fuji apples4030 Kiwifruit
The albums
Five fruits, five albums.
Over 1,400 codes exist. We keep albums for the five that turn up most on the swap table, each with every sticker design we have found.
Before the sticker
The label used to go on the crate.
Fruit once travelled in wooden crates with a lithographed label pasted on the end. Packing houses printed a brand for each grove. We keep scans of seventeen of them.
See the crate wallSwap Saturday
- 10:00Doors openCarrer de Cuba 12, Ruzafa. First Saturday of every month. Free.
- BringYour doublesStuck on baking paper, so they peel off again without tearing.
- SwapOne for oneOr just look through the albums. Nobody has to trade.
- 13:00Sheets awaySpare album sheets are €1. Coffee is on whoever found the rarest sticker.
Want list
Metallized film
A shiny foil sticker on an apple is rare enough that the whole table comes over to look.
A code in the 83000s
The range set aside for GMO produce went unused, then opened to everyone. Five-digit codes starting with 83 or 84 are still uncommon.
Organic 9s
The same design with a 9 in front. Collectors like to keep both versions of one sticker side by side.
Character stickers
Licensed sets: Toy Story and Finding Nemo stickers under the Disney Garden brand, Minions on Chiquita bananas. We can't print them here, so come and see the originals.
Questions
Asked at the table
Usually not. Most PLU stickers are not biodegradable, and composters can reject fruit and peel that still has them on. Peel it off first, ideally onto a sheet for us.
No. Come and look through the albums. Most people start with the stickers from that week's shopping.
The International Federation for Produce Standards, a group of fruit and vegetable associations formed in 2001. The codes themselves have been in use since 1990.
That was the point of the federation: one list for everyone. A 4011 is a yellow banana at any till that uses PLU codes.
Lift one edge with a fingernail and peel slowly, low and flat. Stick it on baking paper; the silicone lets it come off again for the album. Write the shop and the date next to it.