External competitiveness of Spanish canned fruit and vegetable businesses during the second half of the twentieth century

Francisco Medina Albaladejo

Business History, 2010, vol. 52, issue 3, 417-434

Abstract: The Spanish canned fruit and vegetable industry has had a strong export orientation since its beginnings at the end of the nineteenth century. A growing foreign demand, the constraints of the domestic market and the need to find outlets for large quantities of fruit and vegetables resulting from the modernisation of farming were behind this intense move towards an international focus. In this paper we seek to show what constituted the bases of the competitive advantage of the Spanish canning industry. Three main conclusions can be drawn from applying the theory of industrial clusters: the absolute advantage of costs (in salaries and in raw materials) obtained from the geographical concentration of the sector, which allowed businesses to offer highly competitive prices; knowledge sharing throughout the history of the industry; and the importance of state help.

Keywords: exports; canned fruit and vegetables; industrial clusters; Spain; twentieth century (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1080/00076791003721845

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