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In 2017, the Spanish agri-food sector increased 3.5% and its contribution to GDP reached a record high of 62,000 millions

Results from the Observatory of the Spanish agri-food sector in the European context, carried out for Cajamar

The Spanish agri-food sector, which covers both primary production and the agri-food industry, generated an added value of 62,000 million euros in 2017, 3.5% more than the previous year. This figure indicates that Spain contributes 11.4% to the value added of the European agri-food sector, only behind France, Germany and Italy. In Spain, this sector represents 5.8% of GDP, a percentage far higher than the average of the European Union, which stands at 3.6%.

These figures can be found in the report carried out for Cajamar Observatorio sobre el sector agroalimentario español en el contexto europeo 2017 (2017 Observatory on the Spanish agri-food sector in the European context) by Joaquín Maudos and Jimena Salamanca. The study also shows positive figures on employment, since the number of workers in the sector has increased 3.7% in Spain during 2017, while in the European Union jobs continue to be destroyed, with a loss of 2.5% in the last year. Thus, Spain is the 6th country with the highest number of employees in the agri-food sector, equal to 7.8% of the total.

In 2017, Spain reached a record high of 40,065 million euros in agri-food exports, representing an increase of 6.6%. This exceeds the European Union average (5.9%) and that of European leading countries in exports such as Germany (5%) and the Netherlands (5.8%). Spain is already the 4th European economy in agri-food exports, with a market share of 9.3% of the 526,606 million euros of the value of total exports of the European Union.

The majority of the Spanish agri-food exports to the European Union are destined to France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom, representing 73.2% of the foreign sales in this sector. Outside the European Union, the two main markets are North America (3.9%) and Asia (4.2%).

Real productivity per worker in the sector is 17.7% lower than that of the total Spanish economy, since, although the food, drink and tobacco sector registers productivity levels that are over 5% of the total Spanish economy, the low productivity levels of agriculture weaken the total figures. Still, the Spanish agri-food sector was 52.1% more productive than the European Union in 2016 (last available year).

Against this favorable comparison, the sector shows great weaknesses in terms of R&D investment, since, while these investments have increased in the European Union 36% between 2006 and 2015, in Spain they have dropped 16.6%.

Finally, the report shows that food and drinks have a greater importance in the shopping basket in Spain (19.6%) compared to the European Union (17.5%). Also, according to the report, food in Spain is 4.3% cheaper than the European average, with non-alcoholic (11.7%) and alcoholic drinks (15.9%) being even cheaper.