Today we attended a briefing at the United States Embassy in Madrid. Madrid is the capitol of Spain and the third largest city in the European Union (E.U.). Jim Peterson ‘40 and Joe Babb of the U.S. State Department, whom we met in Turkey, arranged this meeting. We were fortunate to have several presenters.
The first was John Peter Higgins of the Madrid Embassy who discussed economic factors in Spain. Spain is the fifth largest economy in the European Union. As with the global economy, Spain is experiencing slow growth and dealing with the impacts of a recession. In the 1970’s Spain was a very poor country. In the 1980’s, government and private investment in the real estate development and construction sectors created jobs and increased the standard of living. By the 1990’s Spain’s economy was skyrocketing. As part of the European Union, many of the traditional economic practices are unavailable to the government of Spain. For example, fiscal policy of the Euro is controlled by the E.U. and Spain cannot issue currency or adjust interest rates. So, they resort to infrastructure projects to help infuse currency into the market and help create jobs. Spain’s current unemployment rate is around 20%; however, if you include the problematic immigration population, from Northern Africa and Eastern Europe, this number is estimated to be 40%. The per capita income in Spain is $22,338. The government has instituted salary reductions of 5%, decreased benefits, enacted labor and pension reform.
Spain is a leader in high speed rail and green technology including solar and wind power. The government is focusing on the country’s high technology sector to jump start the economy.
Robert Hanson, U.S.D.A, Foreign Agricultural Services (FSA) spoke next regarding agriculture in Spain. The FSA is responsible for promoting United States Agricultural exports and related products to Spain. The FSA has 102 offices in 82 countries. Mr. Hanson relayed to us that it is difficult for Spain to compete in the world market due to high labor costs and energy rates. Spain is utilizing 54% of their arable land for production with 13% of this land irrigated. Olives, cereal crops, almonds, citrus and grapes are the top agricultural products. Livestock is a large part of Spain’s agriculture, with Spain’s pork production number two in the E.U. United States exports to Spain in 2008 were 1.5 billion, with 46 ports receiving the commodities. Food security and international trade agreements are some of the critical issues that are monitored by the FSA office in Madrid. The average age of a farmer in Spain is 40.
Angela Turrin of the United States Department of Commerce, U.S. Commercial Service spoke to us next about connecting U.S. companies with those in Spain. The International Partner Search (IPS) is the name of the program the Department of Commerce offers to companies in the U.S and Spain. If interested, please go to www.export.gov/cs for more information.
Irene Sobreroca Doblas with AFRE, the Spanish Water and Irrigation Manufactures Association was the final speaker and gave a brief overview of their role in water policy and irrigation. AFRE is a non-profit organization. The association is the only nation-wide association of businesses whose goal is to represent, defend, promote and develop Spanish water and irrigation technology. With close to 100 members, AFRE is made up of manufacturer’s, engineers and installers- and other organizations in the water technology.
At the end of our trip, the 6 of us would like to reiterate Class 40’s final sentiment: We are all thankful for the opportunity and will forever be appreciative to the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation and Alumni for this seminar. The cultural, political and historical leadership experiences will impact us in our personal and professional life.
- Karm Bains, Melissa Duflock, Matt Jones, Jim Peterson, Sarah Reynolds, Jim Shattuck
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