15.06.2021

Spain is one of the most important EU-countries producing and consuming legumes. Both grain legumes and fodder legumes are well represented, with Spain being the first producer of fodder legumes in the EU. Legumes can fix nitrogen from the air thanks to their rhizobia. In addition, they serve to loosen up crop rotation, which is an advantage from a phytosanitary point of view. These advantages work as levers for the production of legumes in competition with other crops. The Mediterranean climate in Spain is one of the favourable conditions of the legumes production. Although grain legumes are traditional in the diet in Spain, their production decrease in the last decades in favour of cereals and other oil crops. Meanwhile those for fodder legumes like alfalfa did not decrease.
This report is part of the transdisciplinary EU research project "LegValue". The present study describes the markets of the main grown grain legumes and shows price differences for grain legumes in Spain. Furthermore, some levers and barriers for the development of legumes in Spain will be highlighted. A mixed-method approach based on quantitative and qualitative analyses was used in this study. The parameters used for the quantitative analyses are production, domestic consumption, imports, exports and producer prices.