Agriculture in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. The cases of wine and ornamental plants

Abstract

Urban agriculture is agriculture that takes place within or around cities. While agriculture within cities is carried out mostly by non-professional farmers, urban-fringe agriculture is carried out by professional farmers. In this paper we study two peri-urban agricultural sectors within the Barcelona Metropolitan Region: on the one hand, the wine sector within Alella’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), and on the other, the flower and ornamental plant sector in the Maresme region. The success or failure of these peri-urban farms depends on the strategy adopted to adapt their business models to the proximity of cities. From the semi-structured interviews conducted with producers, it is concluded that most of the wineries have been in existence for less than 30 years, despite being one of the first PDOs of the Iberian Peninsula. The wineries offer activities connected with tourism or leisure and, to a lesser extent, education. The cut-flower and ornamental-plant farms which were interviewed have been in existence, on average, for more than 50 years. They do not offer educational or recreational activities. The two peri-urban agricultural sectors studied take advantage of their location near cities, but in two different ways. On the one hand, the wine sector diversifies its strategy by offering recreational and tourist activities, while the producers of ornamental plants take advantage of the metropolitan infrastructures to market their production.