Almería’s fruit and vegetable competitive advantage and the growth of GDP per capita

Abstract

Almeria's horticulture has experienced extensive growth that is sustained by the main macroeconomic variables: an acceleration of the agricultural income, broadly-speaking, a positive commercial balance throughout the first quindenium of the century and a GDP that on the whole represents the 16.69% of that accounted by all the province, without taking the agricultural auxiliary industry into account. This trend leads to an asymmetric process of deagrarianization which registers the whole of the Spanish economy and acts as a source of competitive plus point in comparative terms with the development of the social welfare of its territory. A linear regression analysis crosses two variables to assess the degree of coincidence that exists between the growth registered by Almeria's horticulture industry and the quality of life of its citizens. On the one hand, the productivity of the sector is used (average in tonnes of production per hectare) whilst, on the other hand, per capita GDP -because economic growth theories go against GDP as an indicator of social welfare. There is evidence that GDP per capita follows a parallel or symmetrical pattern to the citizens' perception of happiness. It has been categorically confirmed that the horticulture industry of Almería intervenes as a competitive advantage through its productivity, as it stands above all as a long-term determinant of the standard of living of any territory