Debates

Antón Costas: "The agri-food report uncovers a small jewel of our economy, with a very powerful innovation capacity"



This afternoon the Advisory Board of the Foundation Catalunya Europe (FCE) has presented the report "The food industry in Catalonia: a business perspective" in the Circle of Economy. 

The event was introduced by the president of the Circle and speaker of the Advisory Council of the FCE for the report, Anton Costas, who pointed out the relevance of studies like this one to help and encourage debate. Subsequently, the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the FCE, Antoni Castells, highlighted some important features that appear in the report and the fact that Catalonia is one of Europe’s leading regions in the food sector and the need to get involved in Catalonia the great European debate.

For his part, Professor of Applied Economics and author of the report, Agustí Segarra, presented in detail the main results of the study and confirmed that the food industry ranks first in Catalonia in turnover (24.337 million euros in 2013 ), followed by the chemical, energy and automobile; while it is occupying the first position as a generator of jobs.

The author gives a short history since 95 in which a large sector growth is observed until 2007, when affected by the crisis. Although in recent years and can speak of recovery, the author notes that "one of the main challenges is to regain the muscle of the industry, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively." The study also shows that the business shows great heterogeneity and therefore must design a sensitive industrial policies to this reality.




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Catalonia