At first glance, we would say that this is good news. This 2025, Spanish agricultural income has set a historical record and has been put at 41,262 million of euros. It is a robust trend: agri-food Spain is on the way out. And yet, between 2020 and 2023, 130,730 farms disappeared. That is, 12.4% of them have evaporated.
It’s not magic, it’s the costs that, in ten years, have doubled.
Is things that bad? It depends on when we compare ourselves. If we compare with 2022, when the entire universe conspired to break all historical cost records As far as I’m concerned, the situation is pretty good. If we compare with 2025, the situation is quite complicated.
And not only because of the generalized increases that have been accumulating, but above all because the cost structure has exploded. The changes that the sector has undergone in ffertilizers, energy, machinery or labor They make the mere hypothesis of returning to a situation similar to that of a decade ago sound like science fiction.
But let’s talk about the costs. The figures are from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Yeah We take previous prices as a reference Due to the escalation of costs, the data for the end of 2025 already indicates it as the third most expensive year in the series. And they had not yet started the bombing of Iran.
The dreams that, after the crisis of 2022 and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, everything would return to its place, have been pulverized.
Let’s do a review: fertilizers have increased by 74%, agricultural diesel by 68%, electricity by 53%, feed by 31.7%, machinery by 5.5%, seeds by 3.2 and salaries between 4.7 and 7.6%. Fertilizers alone already represent between 15 and 30% of the total production cost.
And, despite everything, the sector does not stop making money. As I said, Spanish agricultural income reached 41,262 million euros. 12.9% compared to 2024 and, clearly, the highest figure in history.
To a large extent, this It is explained by the rains of the year last (between 10 and 20% more were produced) while prices remained the same and consumption grew by 5%. But also to something much more structural: the number of agricultural holdings is reducing, but the number of useful land is not (a drop of 12.4% compared to 1.6%). To give us an idea, right now Spain has less than half as many farms as it had in 1989.
The accumulation figures. In global terms, only 6% of farms have more than 100 hectaresbut that 6% concentrates 58% of useful agricultural land and 30% of production. Progressively, as agricultural entrepreneurs retire without relief or bankruptcy, the giants acquire more and more land, completely reorganizing the Spanish countryside.
These giants have more room for negotiation downwards (with suppliers) and upwards (with distributors). Furthermore, they have the financial and productive capacity to diversify more and, therefore, weather storms better. However, as we have seen in recent yearsit has consequences.
More than it seems.
Image | Chris Ensminger
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