A structural challenge for the agri-food sector
The shortage of labour has become one of the main concerns of the agri-food sector in Spain. In fact, together with generational renewal, it represents the key challenge affecting the sector’s social sustainability. This is a highly horizontal issue: although it may be most visible at farm level, it is also common to the industrial and commercial links of the chain and therefore has a significant impact on agri-food cooperatives, as key players in the Spanish and European agri-food market. It is, consequently, a cross-cutting challenge that conditions productive capacity, competitiveness and, ultimately, the viability and sustainability of rural areas.
A sector increasingly dependent on salaried labour
To address its complexity, it is first necessary to analyse the sector’s dependence on labour and how this has evolved in recent years. In this regard, as highlighted in the recent report “The agri-food sector and work: a relationship in transformation” prepared by Cajamar, the data are conclusive: wage employment has become a widespread phenomenon.
Spanish agriculture has shifted from having three family workers for every salaried worker in the mid-1970s to having two salaried workers for every family farmer today. This transformation, marked by a significant decline in the relative importance of family (and owner) labour, outlines a new relationship of increasing dependence on the availability of qualified labour.
This situation is not exclusive to Spain; it is also one of the main conclusions of “An agriculture without farmers”, written by Bertrand Hervieu and François Purseigle in 2022 and published in Spanish in 2024 by Cajamar, which reflects on the structural and social changes affecting the agri-food sector in France.
The growing weight of salaried employment confirms the sector’s dependence on labour that is, however, increasingly difficult to secure. This challenge is twofold for agri-food cooperatives, which directly employ more than 122,000 people in Spain and also seek to better address this issue on their members’ farms. These figures illustrate the economic and social impact of the challenge and the importance of tackling it as a priority, urgently and strategically.
A multifactorial problem with deep-rooted causes
It is not easy to provide a single diagnosis of the causes behind labour shortages in the sector. What can be concluded is that it is a complex, multifactorial problem, for which several structural and cyclical drivers can be identified:
- A general lack of interest among workers in rural areas, with career expectations more oriented towards urban environments, and with the main barriers to rural settlement being the lack of basic services, lower economic and social dynamism, limited leisure options and even difficulties in accessing housing.
- Limited awareness of, and interest in, agriculture and livestock farming as attractive or prestigious sectors for professional and personal development. In this regard, the pessimistic discourse around profitability and quality of life — often voiced by the sector itself — has been decisive. Such messages have discouraged even family generational renewal on farms and, unsurprisingly, have also undermined the sector’s ability to attract labour.
- In general terms, existing job offers are perceived as insufficiently attractive for potential workers. The Cajamar report on the agri-food sector and employment indicates that Spain’s primary sector is 57.9% more productive than the EU-27 average. This positive differential, which positions Spain as the most competitive country in agriculture and fisheries (53% above the EU-27 average), suggests that there is significant room to increase average wages (currently 29% below the EU-27 average) without undermining competitiveness.
- The lack of generational renewal in agriculture often leads to the persistence of small, ageing farms with low levels of modernisation and a reduced ability to attract new professional profiles.
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- The still limited deployment of digitalisation and innovation reduces the sector’s potential appeal to workers with higher technical skills.
- A strong link between agricultural employment and migrant labour. According to the Cajamar report, 28% of agricultural employment affiliated to Social Security is foreign, with provinces such as Almería (70%) and Lleida (81%) showing a high level of dependence on this workforce. Although this symbiosis is both necessary and evident, numerous administrative barriers and outdated regulations continue to hinder migrants’ socio-labour integration, generating undesirable situations of vulnerability and irregularity.
- The predominance of low-skilled jobs and, in particular, high levels of seasonality make it difficult for workers to start and consolidate a life project in rural areas, reducing the sector’s attractiveness compared with other economic activities.
All these factors, among many others, shape a complex and multifactorial scenario that requires collective, innovative and coordinated responses and strategies.
Cooperative-led initiatives to address labour shortages
Aware of the magnitude of the challenge, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España is promoting a range of initiatives aimed both at gaining a better understanding of the problem and at developing realistic solutions to help cooperatives and their members cope more effectively with this challenge:
- The creation of an internal Working Group on Labour, designed to identify common needs, share successful experiences and design joint lines of action at cooperative level.
- In collaboration with the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the launch of pilot initiatives for the socio-labour integration of migrants under international protection into cooperatives and associated farms. These projects, still at an early stage and in the process of expansion, may become another tool to broaden and stabilise labour flows in the sector, while also fulfilling a social inclusion purpose for refugees.
- The study and exploration of agreements with organisations involved in recruitment at origin and the labour integration of people at risk of social exclusion, exploring models that provide guarantees and facilitate the incorporation of workers into agricultural campaigns.
- Support for, and accompaniment of, recruitment-at-origin projects, including programmes such as Wafira I and II, which seek to combine the sector’s labour needs with decent employment opportunities that offer participants more than just a job.
- Promoting the creation of institutional ecosystems in which public bodies, the private sector and third-sector organisations coexist to foster labour integration strategies in the agri-food sector, including cross-cutting measures aimed at developing basic skills and access to training.
A challenge that goes beyond the sector
The shortage of labour is not merely an operational issue: it is a national challenge that affects many economic sectors, but particularly the agri-food sector and rural areas, which have suffered from continuous rural exodus for decades and are now beginning to show the consequences. It is a problem that affects generational renewal, territorial cohesion and the future of the sector.
Cooperatives, given their social dimension and their capacity to articulate action at territorial level, are in a strategic position to lead joint solutions that reconcile competitiveness, job quality and social integration.
Addressing this challenge with ambition and a long-term perspective will be essential to ensure that cooperatives remain competitive and continue to act as drivers of development and stability in Spain’s rural territories.
This article was published in issue 68 of the magazine of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de España (October–December 2025).
