Spain’s greenhouse-grown vegetables generated a record EUR 4.695 billion in export revenue between September 2025 and May 2026, according to figures from AgroBank and Agrifood Comunicacion’s 2026 fruit-and-vegetable sector report. The same analysis puts the trade surplus for greenhouse vegetables at EUR 4.238 billion, another record for the category.
The figures are from the 2026 AgroBank/Agrifood fruit-and-vegetable sector report (figures 15–16, printed pages 14–15), also covered on 5 October by Europa Press. The EUR 4.695 billion export figure and EUR 4.238 billion surplus relate to the September 2025–May 2026 window, not a full calendar year.
Five major greenhouse crops cover 61,471 hectares
The report’s figure 15 table lists a provisional 61,471 hectares for 2025/26 across five major greenhouse vegetable crops—tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes and aubergines—compared with 61,845 hectares in 2024/25. The report’s narrative also uses 61,845 hectares for the current season, an internal inconsistency; HortiSignal uses the provisional 2025/26 table figure rather than treating the narrative figure as settled. Europa Press reports the area as 2.76% above the preceding five-season average, with Andalusia accounting for approximately 76%.
Approximately 85% of exported greenhouse-vegetable volume goes to other European Union countries, according to the AgroBank/Agrifood report. That figure describes where product is sold by volume; it should not be confused with the share of export revenue received from the EU.
Record export receipts do not imply record production
The wider fruit-and-vegetable sector presents a more complex picture. The report, citing European Commission data, says Spanish production of principal fruits and vegetables declined to 11.7 million tonnes in 2025, the lowest figure since 2010 and below 14.7 million tonnes in 2018. Those national production figures cover more than greenhouse vegetables and should not be read as greenhouse output alone.
For greenhouse operators and suppliers, the new figures provide a benchmark for the economic weight of protected cultivation and its exposure to EU demand. Record export value, however, does not on its own reveal margins, selling-price changes, production volumes or profitability. Those would require separate crop-level and cost data.
How to read the provisional figures
The original report’s figures 15–16 separate the greenhouse crop-area series from the export and trade-balance measures. The 2025/26 five-crop area is identified as provisional, and the table and narrative disagree on whether 61,471 or 61,845 hectares belongs to the current season. The 61,471-hectare figure is the table’s advance estimate, not a final planted-area result.
Export value and the EUR 4.238 billion trade surplus measure trade over a stated nine-month period; neither is a measure of growers’ profitability. Crop-level output, price movements, input costs and revised area estimates would be needed to judge whether operators’ margins improved.
Key takeaways
- Reported greenhouse vegetable exports reached EUR 4.695 billion in September 2025–May 2026, with a EUR 4.238 billion trade surplus.
- The report’s provisional table puts five-crop greenhouse area at 61,471 hectares for 2025/26; the narrative contains a conflicting figure.
- About 85% of the exported volume went to the EU; record trade receipts do not establish grower-level margins.
