Top in Olives, second in Tangerines


 We are dropping down a steady 100m today and for fans of September fields, harvested of their grain, you are in for a treat.  For the rest of us, tough, we are going to think about grain,



Grains covered about 10 percent of Spain's cultivated lands, and about 10 percent of that area was irrigated.  Rice, obviously is dependent on plentiful water supplies and,so is produced in the irrigated areas of the Levante, in Andalusia, and at the mouth of the Rio Ebro. Spanish farmers also grew rye, oats, and sorghum - this being one of the imports of the Islamic Conquest.




During the mid-1980s, the grain crop hit record highs of about 20 million tons, compared to 13 million tons in 1983. This meant that Spain, long a grain-importing nation, now produced a surplus of cereals  Barley makes up one-half of the grain harvest and corn for about one-sixth of it, as the government encouraged production of these crops in order to reduce imports of animal feed grains. 


For those of you who like a good list, in 2018, the top things grown by weight were:


  • 9.8 million tons of olives (largest producer in the world);

  • 9.1 million tons of barley (5th largest producer in the world);

  • 7.9 million tons of wheat (19th largest producer in the world);

  • 6.6 million tons of grapes (4th largest producer in the world, behind China, Italy and USA);

  • 4.7 million tons of tomatoes (8th largest producer in the world);

  • 3.8 million tons of maize;

  • 3.6 million tons of oranges (6th largest producer in the world);

  • 2.8 million tons of sugar beet,

  • 2 million tonnes of potatoes

  • 1.9 million tonnes of tangerine (2nd largest producer in the world, only behind China);

  • 1.4 million tons of oats (3rd largest producer in the world, only behind Russia and Canada).




Other noted productions are the fact Spain is the 4th largest producer of peaches, 5th of chili peppers, 7th of lemons and 14th of water melons. If that was enough they are the 3rd greatest producer of artichokes.



With that food for thought we will push on.

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