In Good Company: Agriculture

While Carlos Delgado has attracted most of the attention among the appointments as José Bauzá's ministers, there are others who have dipped below the radar. One of them is the agriculture minister, Gabriel Company.

To be more accurate, Company is to head a super-ministry of agriculture, the environment and land. But it is the agriculture element of this trinity of responsibilities that is the most interesting. It is a post to which Company is eminently suited.

The president of Asaja-Balears, the agriculture business association, Company was a fierce critic of the previous administration of Francesc Antich. In this capacity, he has not always enjoyed the best of relationships with the farmers' union. Nevertheless, the union has said it is happy with his appointment for the very good reason that Company knows the industry.

All the talk of a "professional" heading the tourism ministry overlooked the fact that other ministries might similarly need to be blessed by some independent talent. One reason for neglecting agriculture was that it had, as a ministry, been downgraded by President Antich and been placed within the department of the presidency. The move was designed as a cost-saving one, yet it seemed like a strange one because of what is perceived as the importance of agriculture to Mallorca and the Balearics.

Tourism is by far Mallorca's biggest industry, accounting for roughly 80% of gross domestic product. A professional in charge of the tourism ministry, if you were to appoint one to any ministry, would have made sense, not that he or she could probably have been afforded, as I have said previously.

Agriculture now has one. Company, not actually a member of the Partido Popular, had been fèted at one point by the Unió Mallorquina for a position at the Council of Mallorca, but now he has been placed firmly at the centre of government decision-making, albeit in a ministry which will demand he pays attention to other areas of responsibility as well.

At the time of the election, Company left Bauzá in no doubt that he felt that the PP would be making a mistake in not restoring agriculture as a key ministry. Perhaps he knew something. Whatever, the ministry has indeed been restored, and he is in charge of it.

You may think this is all very sensible. Key industry and all that; there needs to be a dedicated ministry. Everyone knows that Mallorca has its potato and vegetable growing, its almonds, its olives, its vineyards and so on. It has its fairs devoted to the fruits of the land. However, what everyone might not know is that agriculture, which once - back in the early '50s - represented some 40% of the island's economy, now amounts to rather less. 1.7%, if you are being particularly liberal; it is in fact less.

The agriculture spin in Mallorca does not, therefore, quite match up to reality. The industry is still important, but it is not as important as some might think.

Yet, as we know from the fact that TUI keeps banging on about it, there is a relationship between this small industry and the island's chief wealth generator of tourism. It is not just that agriculture helps to maintain tradition and to give a visual appeal, it is also, apart from local consumption generally and export, a source of local supply to the tourism industry.

An issue for Company will be how he might facilitate a growth in the agriculture industry. If demand for local produce is indeed meant to increase as a consequence of sustainable tourism (and were exports to grow), then the industry may face a brighter future after decades of decline.

And Mallorca has land that could be made to be more productive, as opposed to having been allowed to become idle. Last year, for example, there was the case of land in Capdepera that was being looked at for re-cultivation. Furthermore, new forms of agrarianism have been promoted as a way forward for Mallorca, such as by Jerry Mander of the International Forum on Globalization and by an Australian expert on permaculture, Darren Doherty.

Company will seek to reverse what he has called a period of "ignorance, inefficiency and zero interest" in respect of government agricultural policy. Despite agriculture's currently small contribution to the island's economy, it could become, with the right person driving a purposeful strategy, an area of growth. And Company may well be this right person.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.