Companies dedicated to agriculture, not including the self-employed, are now obtaining profit margins for their activity that are much higher than other activities dedicated to the agri-food chain such as supermarkets or food industries.
This is one of the dynamics that can be seen in the third edition of the Observatory of Business Margins created by the Government last year to, as Minister Nadia Calviño said at the time, adopt “effective” measures in economic policy in the midst of the rebound in inflation.
In general terms, the conclusion is that companies achieved better margins in the third quarter of 2023 than before the pandemic, although the result varies greatly by sector. Margin means the difference between sales and costs, that is, gross profit.
The current trend in the food sector is not the most frequent, since until last year it had been the supermarkets that achieved the most profit per unit sold, at times much higher than agriculture, which suffered in one quarter of the year. 2022 margin drops of 70% compared to the pre-pandemic level.
In the last quarter analyzed, the strong rebound in agriculture stands out, adding to that already experienced at the beginning of 2023 and which has allowed it to raise its margins to levels 25% higher than those at the end of 2019, before the pandemic.
The report, prepared by the Ministry of Economy, the Bank of Spain and the Tax Agency, clarifies that this statistic only takes into account the data of companies and not of the self-employed, who have a high representation in agriculture.
On the other hand, merchants, which include supermarkets and large stores, have been narrowing their margins for two quarters, now close to 10% below the end of 2019. Industries have raised them for three consecutive quarters, although They remain 15% below the pre-pandemic level. Businesses, the report says, have failed to “reverse the contractions experienced during the energy crisis.”
Aside from food, the margins of industrial companies are also on the rise and are above pre-pandemic levels, thanks, according to the report, to the reduction in energy prices.
In transportation services and those related to tourism, sales margins have remained stable in recent quarters, after recovering from the strong contractions experienced during the pandemic.
