This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at El campo español en "quiebra técnica", según Coag
The Spanish field in "technical bankruptcy", according to Coag
05/03/2010
March 5, 2010
The agricultural sector, in free fall. The analysis of the technical services of Coag on the final official data of the agricultural income 2009 draws a bleak picture. The agricultural income in real terms experienced a sharp decline of 5.6% compared to 2008, from 12.080 million euros to the 11.404 of the year 2009, according to recent data published by the Ministry of the environment, Rural and marine (Marm).
Compared to the average of the last five years (2003-2009), the final data of income 2009 is 26.4% less. If we look at the evolution of the agricultural income in real terms since 1990, you will see that a 17.2% remains below the encrypted in the beginning of this decade, (13.765,70 million euros in 1990). The negative trend we must add the decline in the number of AWU (full time worker) of - 3.9%, representing a loss of 36.600 jobs in 2009.
Evolution of the agricultural income in real terms (1990-2009). Source: Marm.
These figures are a reflection of the decrease of the number (- 4%), price (- 7%) and value (- 10%) of all agricultural production. By subsectors, it should be noted the significant declines in the prices of potatoes (- 37%), fruits (- 17%) and oil of olive (- 14%). In cereals there is also a significant drop in contributions (- 13%) despite a reduction in the production above 23%. In cattle, milk (- 18%) and pigs (- 4.2%) Star more accused declines. Also, the economic paralysis has caused that the consumption of fertilizers (- 29.4%), fell during 2009 energy and lubricants (- 5.6%) and feed (- 5.6%), major inputs in the sector.
