Unión de Uniones de Agricultores y Ganaderos has warned of the disappearance of 11,000 companies linked to the agricultural sector in the last four years, which is equivalent to a 4% setback in the business fabric and a stagnation of employment between 2022 and 2025.
According to the data handled by the professional organization, between 2022 and 2025 the average number of companies linked to agricultural activity has gone from 275,582 to 264,264, reflecting a continued decrease in this period.
In parallel, the volume of employment generated by these companies has barely varied, with a minimal increase of 0.4%, reaching an average in 2025 of 726,884 jobs.
The entity underlines that this evolution contrasts with that of the economy as a whole, where in that same period the number of companies has increased, albeit moderately, by 1.2% and employment has done so by 10.7%.
Within the agricultural sector, the biggest adjustment, both in companies and jobs, falls on self-employed individuals without employees who, with 10,389 fewer in 2025 compared to 2022, concentrate practically all business and labor destruction. Despite this, this type of farm without hired personnel accounts for 66% of the total companies in the sector, although they only contribute around a quarter of the employment.
If microenterprises (up to 9 workers) are also incorporated, both categories bring together 97% of the firms and 56% of the jobs generated by agriculture and livestock farming.
"The crises that have driven up input costs, the catastrophic situations we have suffered in that period, a food chain that does not guarantee prices that compensate for farm expenses, along with increasingly intense regulatory pressure, explain this process," stated Unión de Uniones.
The organization has focused on the effect that the disappearance of 11,000 companies has on rural Spain, both in its capacity to retain population and in territorial cohesion, also taking into account the industrial and service activity that depends on agricultural and livestock production in small municipalities.