Country profile on rural characteristics Spain - RuDI

Table 8: Primary sector GVA 2004 and average annual growth rate VA 2000 to2004.M€ % GVA % annualgrowth*ES 26 838,0 3,6 0,02EU25 190 666 2,0 1,26*The average annual growth rate is calculated on the basis of GVA at constant price, whereas the '2004'value provided is at current price.(Source: Rural Development in the European Union - Statistical and Economic Information -Report 2007)Farm structure in primary productionThe Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) in Spain exceeded 25 millions of hectares in 2005. Anoticeable feature is the high percentage of UAA devoted to permanent crops (17,1%),which more than doubles the EU25 average. About the half of UAA consists of arableland, while the rest is permanent pasture.The number of farms in Spain has continued to decrease in the last years, and iscurrently slightly above 1 million. More than a half of existing farms has a small size,below 5 ha. Big farms (size bigger than 50 ha) are slightly more than 9%, which is aboveEU25 average, and are generally located in the centre and south of the country. Thetrend in the last 10 years is the increase of smaller and bigger agricultural holdings, witha dramatic reduction of those of medium size.Table 9: Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) in different categories of land use2005.arable land%permanentpasture %permanentcrops %ES 48,0 34,8 17,1EU25 60,1 33,1 6,7(Source: Eurostat, Farm Structure Survey 2005)Table 10: Farm structure 2005: Number of farms, average size of farms andfarm size distribution.size %no of farms ha < 5 ha ≥ 5 - < 50 ha ≥ 50 haES 1 079 420 23,0 53,5 37,3 9,2EU25 9 687 840 16,0 61,6 31,5 6,9(Source: Eurostat, Farm Structure Survey 2005)The productivity of the forestry sector is in general lower than for agriculture, althoughvery few mountains are devoted to production activities. The forest area available forwood supply is around 40%, the most of which is privately owned (81,6%). Forest areasare interested by depopulation phenomena, with the related negative effects on itsenvironmental and social functions and threatening its existence, especially in relation tothe risk of fires. Although forests are not much profitable in terms of direct production,16