Extremadura has silently taken over 99% of an unexpected crop: Spanish tobacco

These are not good times for tobacco cultivation. At least in the European Union, which has seen how in recent decades its weight has been decreasing in the fields. If at the beginning of the 90s I harvested 400,000 tonsat the end of the last decade that figure was already at 140,000. In Spain the situation is not much better: in 2024 The production volume (and hectares) was much lower than just ten years ago. That does not mean that tobacco does not continue to play a relevant role in part of the Spanish agrarian map. In fact there is a region that stands out for its contribution at national and European level: Extremadura.

Only there it is concentrated 99% of the crop and the transformation of tobacco in Spain, which leads the sector to boast an economic impact of 126 million.

Tobacco “made in” Extremadura. In Spain it is impossible to talk about tobacco without also talking about Extremadura. This was recently claimed by the sector in a report of AFI that leaves an eloquent figure: the cultivation and the first processing of the tobacco leaf generates in the region 69 million euros of added value, more or less 99% of the national total.

The percentage is so overwhelming that the industry itself emphasizes that Extremadura is “the main producing center in the country and the first producing region at the European level.” If the focus is expanded, the Tobacco Roundtable estimates that the sector has a total impact of 126 million in the community and generates hundreds of jobs. To be more precise, it speaks of more than a thousand of direct positions, a figure that rises to 2,000 contracts full-time if indirect and induced workers are included.

X-raying the sector. The Tobacco Table is not the only one that highlights the overwhelming weight of Extremadura. The Ministry of Agriculture itself recognizes that, according to data from the 2020 Agrarian Census (the latest available), the region brings together 94% of the 1,052 farms that exist in Spain. The activity focuses mainly on the north of the province of Cáceresin the regions of Campo Arañuelo, La Vera, Alagón, Talayuela and Navalmoral de la Mata.

Beyond Extremadura. The agricultural map is basically completed with Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha and Navarra, although they dedicate many fewer hectares to tobacco. In 2024 Extremadura allocated 6,121compared to the 19 in Castilla y León, the 18 in Castilla-La Mancha and the three in Navarra.

global photography of the sector is, however, much more complex. In the Canary Islands there is an outstanding manufacturing hub, in Cantabria there is the Entrambasaguas factoryfrom Altadis, “the main industrial production center on the peninsula”, and the Community of Madrid also benefits from hosting the headquarters of the Spanish subsidiaries of the large multinationals in the sector.

In general, the Tobacco Table estimates that the sector contributes to the national GDP with 1,825 million eurosa figure that would exceed 3,700 if the total impact is included. Tobacco taxes are another source of substantial income for the State. The group speaks of around 6,700 million collected through the Tax on Tobacco Products, although the total fiscal contribution of the sector would be very high and would exceed 10,100 million euros annually.

Getting perspective. Extremadura plays a prominent role on the Spanish (even European) tobacco map, but in reality our country accounts for a tiny part of the sector worldwide. Although the Spanish contribution represents about 19% of the total of the European Union, which usually places our country among the main producersrepresents 0.5% of global production.

Your footprint It is very far from the big ones manufacturing powers like China, India or Brazil. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Spain would occupy 36th place among tobacco producers by area. Its 8,450 hectares (2021) are in fact nothing when compared to China (1,014,553), India (431,146) or other producers in America and Africa.

better times. After years of regulation and awareness campaigns, the European industry is not going through its best moment either. In 2018 the EC calculated that around 140,000 tonnes of tobacco were grown in the Union as a whole, a far cry from the 400,000 at the beginning of the 1990s.

The cultivated area has also been reduced. Nothing surprising if we take into account the increasingly complex scenario facing the sector and the collapse of consumption. In fact Extremadura exports about 74% of the tobacco leaf he collects. The MAP data They also note the drop in production (and cultivated area) in recent years in Spain, although performance improves.

Images | Rusty Watson (Unsplash), Uitbundig (Unsplash), MAP and Tobacco Table

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