The agricultural and agri-food sector in Galicia; assessment of changes from European integration, 1986-2016

Abstract

In the last 30 years, the Galician agricultural and agri-food sector has had to face deep changes in its operating environment, as a result of changes in markets, policies and societal demands. In that context the sector has shown in some aspects a remarkable dynamism and response capacity. Examples include the growth of milk production, which allowed Galicia to consolidate among the top 10 dairy regions of the EU, or the development of differentiated and quality productions mainly in beef and wine. With regard to production technology, the agricultural sector maintained a high investment effort which, coupled with the accelerated decrease in labour, made it possible that the low rate of capital per worker was corrected. This investment effort also allowed the consolidation of a set of medium-sized professional holdings, still minority in number but already the productive core of the sector. However, despite the advances, the agri-food chain continues to register strong deficiencies, especially in two aspects: structural deficits in the land base of farms and land uses, and the weakness of the agro-industry. Deficiencies that caused an increase in the deficit of the agri-food trade balance in the last three decades.