II Cajamar Observatory on the Spanish agri-food sector in the European context
The Spanish agri-food sector generated 9,2% of the added value of the total Spanish economy in 2018 and has grown for the fourth consecutive year, increasing its added value by 2,3% year-on-year, including the entire chain: primary sector, processing and marketing, which is half a point more than the previous year.
President of Cajamar, Eduardo Baamonde, together with Fernando Miranda, general secretary of Agriculture and Food of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; the professor of Economic Analysis of the University of Valencia and deputy director of Ivie, Joaquín Maudos, and the director of Agri-Food Innovation at Cajamar, Roberto García Torrente, have presented the second issue of 'Observatory on the Spanish agri-food sector in the European context. 2018 Report' before a hundred attendees.
This publication – the only one of its kind in Spain− is supported by an observatory that analyzes the behavior of the Spanish agri-food sector in comparison with that of the countries of the European Union, jointly quantifying the different productive branches that define the sector. In this sense, this second installment of the study includes important new features compared to the previous year, such as the analysis of a new link in the agri-food chain: distribution, which joins the primary sector and the processing industry. Likewise, a series of annexes are incorporated with specific and disaggregated information on the most relevant subsectors of the Spanish agri-food sector, while maintaining a large number of indicators that allow analyzing different economic aspects of this productive segment such as its dimension in terms of added value and employment, its growth rate, its productivity and competitiveness, its importance in the foreign sector of the economy, and its investment effort in R+D. At the same time, it addresses the main challenges and opportunities of the sector, among which sustainability, innovation, digitalization and consumer trends stand out, among others.
The incorporation of the distribution link to this report not only completes the chain but also allows us to establish its importance in the sector. Thus, marketing represents 37,6% of the agri-food activity of Spain, and exceeds the relative weight of the primary sector (31,1%), as well as the processing industry (31,3%). In the EU-28 Marketing (40%) has a greater weight than in Spain, which is compensated by the lower contribution of agriculture and fishing (26,4%).
The added value generated continues to grow
The economist and professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Valencia, Joaquin Maudos, has outlined the most notable data from the report and has pointed out that “the Spanish agri-food sector continues its growth for the fourth consecutive year in the generation of added value.” In 2018, it accounted for 9,2% of the total Spanish economy, increasing the GVA of the expanded agri-food sector to 100.742 million euros, including the entire chain: primary sector, processing and marketing, which is half a point more than the previous year. .
Spain is the fifth economy in the agri-food sector of the European Union, contributing 11,4% of the GVA of the European agri-food sector in 2017, a weight above 7,7% of the Spanish economy in the EU-28 as a whole, which makes clear Spain's greater specialization in this sector.
The six main agri-food producing countries (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) provide 71% of the Union's agri-food added value. But since the crisis in 2008 until the latest data available in 2017, Spain presents the second lowest accumulated growth in real GVA, slightly higher than that of Italy, both without considering distribution (3,9%) and taking it into account within the sector (11,9%). This is due to the behavior of the food, beverage and tobacco industry which, although showing a notable post-crisis recovery, has not yet reached the levels recorded in 2008. Thus, the behavior of the processing industry neutralizes to a certain extent the evolution of the primary sector, whose accumulated growth is the highest (15,7%) and much higher than the European average (3%). For its part, the Spanish agri-food distribution sector is the third most dynamic in terms of real GVA among the main producing countries, behind the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, with an accumulated growth of 25,9% in the last nine years. .
Job creation for the fifth consecutive year
The Spanish agri-food sector employs 2.451.259 people, practically half of these work in distribution. In 2018, employment in the agri-food sector increased by 0,8%, chaining five consecutive years of growth. If compared with the European environment, employment in the Spanish agri-food sector increased by 2017% in 1,7, 0,5 percentage points above the figure for the EU-28, the second country with the highest increase only behind the United Kingdom (2%).
Spain It contributes 9,5% of employment in the EU-28 agri-food sector, which places us in fourth position, thanks to the weight of agri-food distribution (12%, third European economy), followed by the processing industry (fifth economy of the UE, with 9,2%) and the primary sector (with 7,4%, fourth country). Finally, it is worth noting that both in Spain and in the EU-28, 32,2% and 38,3%, respectively, of employees are 50 years old or older, which is a clear indicator of the aging of the sector.
In 2018, Spanish exports of agri-food goods reached a sales figure of 49.502 million euros, which represents 16,9% of the total exports of the Spanish economy.
The productivity of the Spanish agri-food sector is 27,8% higher than that of the EU-28
The real productivity per employee of the Spanish agri-food sector in 2018 amounts to 39.982 euros, 29% less than the 56.435 euros of the total economy. However, there are important differences between the three components of the sector, with the food, beverage and tobacco industry being by far the most productive activity (56.312 euros), with a level similar to the total economy. On the other hand, the productivity of the primary sector (41.645 euros) and marketing (32.952 euros) are below the agri-food sector as a whole, as well as the economy.
In 2017 (last year available in the international comparison), the productivity of Spanish agri-food sector It is 57,9% higher than in the EU-28 and 27,8% higher if distribution is also included. In the last nine years, the Spanish agri-food sector compared to the EU-28 has registered a relative gain in competitiveness, since the accumulated fall in unit labor costs (-5,2%) has been more intense than at the European level (- 4,5%). In addition, it is a much more competitive sector than that of the EU-28 since its unit labor costs are 21% lower.
Foreign trade: exports and imports
In 2018, the Spanish exports of agri-food goods have reached a sales figure of 49.502 million euros, which represents 16,9% of total exports of the spanish economy. For their part, the imports of agri-food products They reach 37.384 million euros and represent 11,4% of the total goods imported nationally. Consequently, the sector shows a trade surplus of 12.118 million euros. Spain is the fourth largest exporter of agri-food products in the EU-28, contributing 9,4% of the total, and the sixth largest importing economy, concentrating 7,1% of agri-food imports from the European Union. The main market for Spanish agri-food exports is the EU-28, to which 73,9% of total exports are destined. United States (3,8%) and Asian market (5,1%) are the main non-EU destinations.
Fruits and edible fruits are the main agri-food products exported by our country and account for 17,7% of the sector total in 2018. In the case of imports, fish, crustaceans and mollusks acquired by the Spanish market account for 16,8%. XNUMX% of total imported agri-food products.
On the other hand, the 17.644 agri-food export companies represent 8,6% of the total export companies in the Spanish economy. After 12 consecutive years of growth, in 2018 the figure fell by 7,4%.
Need for greater investment in R&D
La investment in R&D made by the agri-food sector has increased by 14,1% in 2016 - the last year for which information is available - but despite the increase it has not yet recovered the level recorded in 2008. Furthermore, the weight of investment in the sector agri-food sector, which represents 3,9% of the total expenditure allocated to R&D in Spain, is far from its weight in the generation of value.
The investment effort (R&D/VAB) of the agri-food sector in Spain grows by 8% in 2016, exceeding the 4,6% in the Union. Even so, its value (0,5%) is 28% lower than the value recorded at community level (0,7%). In the European ranking of innovative effort, our country is below the EU-28 average, with a value five times lower than that of the Netherlands, country with the greatest investment effort in the agri-food sector (2,2%) in the EU-28.
For Eduardo Baamonde “the Spanish agri-food sector is one of the strategic sectors of our country”
El president of Cajamar Caja Rural, Eduardo Baamonde, has assured that this study shows that “the Spanish agri-food sector must begin to be considered by society as one of the strategic sectors of our country, since, beyond the economic data showing that Spain is one of the great powers In agri-food matters, the production, transformation and marketing of food and beverages are essential for our lives, as is the capacity of the sector to generate more food, of higher quality and qualities for our well-being.”
baamonde has encouraged the sector "to continue growing and improving profitability through the differentiation of its products and the increase in added value", and to this end has assured that "it is necessary for farmers, industry and distribution to invest in new technologies and big data for the integrated digitalization of the entire value chain, and increase investment in R&D&I to achieve a sustainable model that knows how to anticipate consumer needs.”
The president of Cajamar has outlined what in his opinion are “the four priorities to improve the competitiveness of the sector: professionalization, increasing the size, internationalization and increasing investment in R&D&I.”
Finally, Baamonde has pointed out that Cajamar wants to play an increasingly active role in the transfer of knowledge and the debate of ideas in the Spanish agri-food sector, “as we do today with the publication of this economic report that compares our sector very well. agri-food compared to the European one and that can be of help to our farmers and businessmen in where they should strengthen their investments and projects.”
Challenges: integration, innovation and sustainability
In his speech, the director of Agri-Food Innovation at Cajamar, Roberto García, has delved into the message of the president of Cajamar about the challenges of the Spanish and European agri-food sector, focusing on three of them: integration, innovation and sustainability.
The director of Agri-Food Innovation explained that “at Cajamar, innovation has always been a strategic value, which is why since our beginnings we have been actively supporting the agri-food sector in its transformation process, not only through the financing of new business projects, but also, and above all, with the transfer of knowledge from those innovation projects that we develop in our experimental centers, where we carry out research for the agri-food sector through collaborations with universities, public research centers and companies."
Garcia Torrente has pointed out that the Spanish agri-food sector, in addition to making an investment effort in infrastructure and production processes, has to intensify investment in R&D in all links of the chain to ensure that our agri-food model is economically sustainable. social and environmental.
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