Evolution of the agricultural external deficit, specially in the food domain, and its causes

Abstract

Till the middle of this century, Portugal was known basically as an exporter in this field. Nevertheless, in a more recent period the agricultural external trade has registered a deficit and the supplying of food is more and more dependent on imports, to such an extent that one says usually that the country «imports half the food it eats». In this article one studies the evolution of the agricultural external trade, in special concerning food, and one concludes, as far as this is concerned, that our external dependence, though it may have grown very quickly in the last years, is considerably inferior to 50%. After one indicates the most probable
causes for the agricultural stagnation that underlies the rising deficit in agricultural trade and one also discusses the hypothesis that the liquid investment may not be sufficient to replace the agricultural manpower absorbed by emigration and yet to make possible a substantial rise in production.