The Empire in Numbers: Spain's Covered-Crop Shares
Spain is the European Union's covered-crop power, and the shares are not close. The chart beside this section plots Spain's slice of the 2024 member-state sum for each covered crop: 57.5% of covered peppers, 42.8% of covered strawberries, 34.2% of covered cucumbers and 28.3% of covered tomatoes, on 1 216.4, 319.5, 743.8 and 1 501.8 thousand tonnes respectively.
Add the fifth covered crop, lettuce, and Spain's five-crop total reaches 3 804.2 thousand tonnes in 2024 against 1 718.5 for the Netherlands, 1 380.5 for Poland, 1 101.0 for Italy, 718.8 for France, 638.3 for Greece, 374.9 for Belgium, 237.3 for Germany, 135.6 for Romania and 109.0 for Bulgaria. The five-crop EU member sum is 10 713.4 thousand tonnes, of which Spain alone holds 35.5%.
One methodological warning frames every figure in this article. The covered-crop codes all end in S — V3600S for peppers, V3200S for cucumbers, S0000S for strawberries — and Eurostat publishes no EU-27 aggregate line for any of them. Every "EU" number here is therefore a sum of the member states that reported that series, not an official European total, and reporter coverage varies by crop and year. Lettuce is the one crop where Spain is a minor player: 22.7 thousand tonnes, 6.4% of the member sum, far behind Italy's 189.3.
Spain's share of the EU member-state sums for the five covered crops, 2024, Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1. No EU-27 aggregate line exists for the covered (S-suffixed) crop codes.
| Crop | Spain 2024 (1 000 t) | EU member sum (1 000 t) | Spain's share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covered peppers | 1 216.4 | 2 117.0 | 57.5% |
| Covered cucumbers | 743.8 | 2 177.2 | 34.2% |
| Covered strawberries | 319.5 | 746.4 | 42.8% |
| Covered tomatoes | 1 501.8 | 5 315.9 | 28.3% |
| Covered lettuce | 22.7 | 356.8 | 6.4% |
Almería's Sea of Plastic: Scale Without Glass
Scale, in Spain's case, means area as much as tonnage. The country's covered pepper area rose from 12.4 thousand hectares in 2015 to 15.7 thousand hectares in 2024, and its covered cucumber area from 7.4 to 8.2 thousand hectares. Tomatoes and strawberries went the other way — 19.4 down to 16.7 thousand hectares and 7.1 down to 6.8 — so the growth is concentrated in peppers and cucumbers rather than spread across the whole range.
The chart beside this section tracks Spain's covered pepper harvest for the full decade, and it is a growth line: 898.3 thousand tonnes in 2015, 942.9 in 2016, 1 003.4 in 2017, 1 023.7 in 2018, 1 137.7 in 2019, 1 242.4 in 2020, 1 294.3 in 2021 and 1 297.8 in 2022. That is a net +35.4% over the decade, an average annual rate of 3.4%, with a coefficient of variation of 12.6.
The last two years of the line are the interesting ones. 2023 breaks the climb at 1 044.6 thousand tonnes — 253.2 below the 2022 peak — and 2024 recovers to 1 216.4, still short of the record. A note on terminology: this dataset's "high accessible cover" series covers greenhouses, plastic tunnels and similar structures, so it is not a glasshouse statistic. Almería's sea of plastic and a Dutch glasshouse are counted in the same series, which is precisely why volume comparisons across countries need care.
Spain's covered areas and derived yields (production divided by area), 2024, Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1.
| Covered crop | Area 2015 (1 000 ha) | Area 2024 (1 000 ha) | Yield 2024 (t/ha) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peppers | 12.4 | 15.7 | 77.4 |
| Cucumbers | 7.4 | 8.2 | 91.3 |
| Tomatoes | 19.4 | 16.7 | 89.9 |
| Strawberries | 7.1 | 6.8 | 47.1 |
| Lettuce | 1.0 | 0.9 | 25.5 |
Peppers First: The 57% Crop
Peppers are the crop Spain owns. Its 1 216.4 thousand tonnes in 2024 is 57.5% of the EU member sum of 2 117.0, up from a member sum of 1 629.1 thousand tonnes in 2015. The Netherlands, the second producer, is at 406.6 thousand tonnes — 19.2% — and Poland third at 234.5 (11.1%). Spain and the Netherlands together hold 1 623.0 thousand tonnes, more than three quarters of Europe's covered pepper supply.
Below the top three the field falls away fast: Greece 95.3 thousand tonnes (4.5%), Italy 71.0 (3.4%), Belgium 32.7 (1.5%), Germany 16.5 (0.8%), Romania 15.6 (0.7%), Austria 13.4 (0.6%) and Bulgaria 5.6 (0.3%). Read as a share table, it is a one-country market with two serious followers.
Volatility separates the leaders. Spain's covered pepper line has a coefficient of variation of 12.6 across the decade; Poland's is 42.9, driven by a jump from 135.1 thousand tonnes in 2020 to 333.4 in 2021 — a near-doubling in one year that the annual totals alone cannot explain. The chart beside this section steps away from peppers to Spain's other two covered pillars, cucumbers and strawberries: cucumbers rise from 685.2 to 743.8 thousand tonnes (+8.6%, CV 8.3) while strawberries slide from 394.4 to 319.5 (-19.0%, CV 9.8).
The largest producers of covered peppers in 2024, Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1. CV is the coefficient of variation over 2015-2024, in percent.
| Country | Covered peppers 2024 (1 000 t) | Share of EU member sum | CV 2015-2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | 1 216.4 | 57.5% | 12.6 |
| Netherlands | 406.6 | 19.2% | 8.5 |
| Poland | 234.5 | 11.1% | 42.9 |
| Greece | 95.3 | 4.5% | 10.3 |
| Italy | 71.0 | 3.4% | 13.9 |
| Belgium | 32.7 | 1.5% | 11.1 |
| Germany | 16.5 | 0.8% | 22.9 |
Cucumbers and Strawberries: The Rest of the Covered Plate
Cucumbers are Spain's second covered crop and its narrowest lead. Spain's 743.8 thousand tonnes is 34.2% of the member sum, but the Netherlands at 416.0 (19.1%) and Poland at 305.2 (14.0%) are both within reach, followed by France at 149.5 (6.9%) and Greece at 131.9 (6.1%). Cucumbers are also the crop where Spain's lead looks most like a volume advantage rather than an efficiency one.
The grouped-bar chart beside this section compares yields directly: per hectare, the Netherlands harvests 650.0 tonnes of covered cucumbers against Spain's 91.3, 478.9 tonnes of covered tomatoes against 89.9, and 259.0 tonnes of covered peppers against 77.4. The Dutch cucumber area is 0.6 thousand hectares; Spain's is 8.2. Same series, same year, two very different ways of producing a cucumber.
Strawberries complete the picture and complicate it. Spain is the largest covered producer at 319.5 thousand tonnes (42.8%), ahead of Greece at 133.9 (17.9%), Italy at 94.7 (12.7%) and the Netherlands at 66.0 (8.8%) — but its line falls 19.0% over the decade while the EU covered-strawberry member sum grows from 660.2 thousand tonnes in 2015 to 746.4 in 2024, a net +13.1%. Spain is not shrinking in a shrinking market; it is losing share in a growing one, and the dip to 268.1 thousand tonnes in 2020 shows how exposed that line is.
Spain and the Netherlands across the four largest covered crops, 2024, Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1. Yields are production divided by area.
| Crop | Spain 2024 (1 000 t) | Netherlands 2024 (1 000 t) | Spain yield (t/ha) | Netherlands yield (t/ha) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cucumbers | 743.8 | 416.0 | 91.3 | 650.0 |
| Tomatoes | 1 501.8 | 828.5 | 89.9 | 478.9 |
| Peppers | 1 216.4 | 406.6 | 77.4 | 259.0 |
| Strawberries | 319.5 | 66.0 | 47.1 | 110.0 |
Water, Labour and What the Data Cannot Say
The chart beside this section puts Spain's 2015 and 2024 side by side for four covered crops, and the divergence is the story: peppers 898.3 to 1 216.4 thousand tonnes (+35.4%) and cucumbers 685.2 to 743.8 (+8.6%) grew, while tomatoes fell from 1 835.3 to 1 501.8 (-18.2%) and strawberries from 394.4 to 319.5 (-19.0%). Spain's five covered crops still add up to 3 804.2 thousand tonnes — but the mix has moved.
What this dataset does not carry matters as much as what it does. apro_cpsh1 reports production volumes and areas; it has no water abstraction, no labour input, no energy or fertiliser use, no price and no monthly breakdown. A reader cannot use it to say how much water Almería's covered crops take, how many workers they employ, or what they earn per hectare. Yields quoted here are simple derived ratios — production divided by area — and inherit the reporting gaps of both series.
The productivity gap is the honest open question. The Netherlands produces its covered cucumbers at 650.0 tonnes per hectare on 0.6 thousand hectares; Spain produces 91.3 on 8.2. Dutch covered peppers yield 259.0 tonnes per hectare against Spain's 77.4. Those figures come from the same dataset and the same year, but they measure different systems — heated glass with artificial light and climate control against largely unheated plastic — and apro_cpsh1 carries none of the inputs that would explain the difference. Spain's covered empire is real and it is large; whether it is efficient is a question the data refuses to answer.
Spain's covered crops in 2015 and 2024, Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1. CV is the coefficient of variation of each series over 2015-2024, in percent.
| Crop | Spain 2015 (1 000 t) | Spain 2024 (1 000 t) | Net change | CV | Area 2024 (1 000 ha) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peppers | 898.3 | 1 216.4 | +35.4% | 12.6 | 15.7 |
| Cucumbers | 685.2 | 743.8 | +8.6% | 8.3 | 8.2 |
| Tomatoes | 1 835.3 | 1 501.8 | -18.2% | 11.9 | 16.7 |
| Strawberries | 394.4 | 319.5 | -19.0% | 9.8 | 6.8 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country grows the most covered peppers in the EU?
Spain: 1 216.4 thousand tonnes in 2024, 57.5% of the EU member-state sum. The Netherlands is second with 406.6 thousand tonnes (19.2%) and Poland third with 234.5 (11.1%).
How much of Europe's covered cucumbers comes from Spain?
Spain grew 743.8 thousand tonnes in 2024, 34.2% of the member-state sum of 2 177.2. The Netherlands follows with 416.0 (19.1%) and Poland with 305.2 (14.0%). Because the covered cucumber code V3200S has no EU-27 aggregate line, the European total is a sum of reporting member states.
Does Spain grow strawberries under cover?
Yes — overwhelmingly. Spain's covered strawberry harvest was 319.5 thousand tonnes in 2024, 42.8% of the covered member-state sum and 98.7% of Spain's own strawberry crop. Greece (133.9) and Italy (94.7) are the next largest covered producers.
Is Spanish covered production growing?
Not uniformly. Covered peppers are up 35.4% over 2015-2024 and cucumbers up 8.6%, but covered tomatoes are down 18.2% and covered strawberries down 19.0%. Across five covered crops Spain still totalled 3 804.2 thousand tonnes in 2024, the largest in the EU.
Source data extracted from Eurostat dataset apro_cpsh1.
This article was generated using AI. The content is based on Eurostat data and is provided as a starting point — please verify all data with the original source.
