Industrial Production and Agricultural Development in Spain
3. Industrial Production and Industrialization of the Primary Sector
3.1 The Industrialization of Agriculture and Livestock
The primary sector presents some general characteristics:
– Decrease of cultivated area under rainfed and irrigated increase
– Increasing the surface area occupied by forests due to the loss of importance of the use of pastures.
– Increased use of surfaces without loss of agricultural land and agricultural implications of growth of urban land and infrastructure and services intended.
– Increase in the economic importance of livestock in the final agricultural production and loss of importance of fisheries and forestry sectors.
– Bond activities between progressive farming and the food industry.
– Loss of population and aging.
Iberia has a mean annual rainfall between 3000 and 600 mm. The irrigated crops show 79% of the surface while the rainfed crops have 21% of the surface. In rainfed cropland, grains (barley and wheat) dominate. The area is also characterized by trees and *Olea europaea* (olive trees). The vine is growing more widespread in dry areas.
The irrigated crops can be found on herbaceous plants such as sunflower, flax, soybeans, or forages. However, the cultivation that adds the most economic value is that of fruits and vegetables. In horticultural cultivation, there has been a spread of greenhouses producing a wide variety of products. Regarding the irrigation of fruit trees, the most common are citrus fruits (lemon, orange, grapefruit, and tangerine), trees in the *Prunus* genus (peach, apricot, plum), as well as apple and pear trees.
The vast majority of farms, over 90%, correspond to individual owners, indicating that family farms still predominate. The number of agricultural exploitations continues to decline, while the average size increases. In the mainland interior (Castilla and León and Aragón), dry land crops dominate, where the largest farms are located. In the periphery of the mainland, especially where irrigation is abundant, agriculture is practiced part-time, as seen in regions like the Flag of Spain or the Canary Islands, where farms are smaller.
Livestock provides over a third of the economic value of final agricultural production. After 40 years of a long period of growth, the livestock sector has recently stabilized the number of cattle. The livestock sector shows a high degree of association with meat and dairy industries.
The livestock sector is the largest for pigs. Pork, as a staple, has been extended with a variety of products that have undergone high industrialization through slaughterhouses and meat industries. The beef sector ranks fourth in order of importance within the EU. The poultry sector has also experienced significant development through industrialization. Spain is the second state in the EU regarding the importance of its sheep and goats, which are now showing a downward trend.
Fishing plays a very important role from the economic point of view in the final production of the primary sector. The Spanish forest area of the state is 26.3 million hectares, slightly more than half the territory.
The primary sector activities provide many of the raw materials for the food industry, and indeed, there is increasing integration and continuity between the farm or fishing industry and the elaboration of their products.
The Food Industry occupies 14.3% of the workforce in Spain and is one of the pioneers for the employed population and economic value. Many of these products have been distributed to numerous small shops.
The most important subsectors are meat, milk, bread, pastries, wine production, and canned vegetables.
The food industry also plays an important role in foreign trade, accounting for 20% of exports and 10% of imports (fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, wine, and fish).
3.2 Industrial Production and Construction
The entrance of Spain into the current EU in 1986 brought the industry to foreign markets, leading to an increase in both exports and imports, which changed the business structure. It also initiated a process of globalization of trade, as the market lost national importance due to new export opportunities offered by external openness to the European and world markets.
In the corporate structure of industries, the number of SMEs has increased through specialization at work or outsourcing carried out by large companies. However, there is a continuous process of concentration of business volume and decision-making power among larger companies and a major deployment of multinational companies. Industrial activities tend to spread along two major axes: the Mediterranean axis (Malaga to Girona) and the Ebro axis (from Álava to Lleida), along with industrial concentration in the metropolitan region of Madrid.
Catalonia accounts for nearly a quarter of the turnover of industrial companies in Spain, followed by Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia, and the Basque Country.
The three industrial sectors in Spain that stand out are food and beverages (17%), chemicals (15%), and transport equipment (13.5%).
At a second level of importance are four industrial sectors: production and processing of metals, machinery and equipment, metal products, and non-metallic mineral products, which account for 28.3% of the value of industrial production.
The economic value of production often does not correspond to the number of people employed. The sectors of the industry with a larger workforce occupy more workers per unit of production, while others with higher economic productivity occupy fewer workers.
The construction sector is a major creator of employment (12% of the workforce), but it heavily depends on economic factors and is highly fragmented into small businesses.