According to Digopaul, the notion of agribusiness refers to the group formed by the different industries that are linked to agriculture. To understand what agribusiness is, therefore, we must first be clear about what the concepts of industry and agriculture refer to.
The industry is made up of the infrastructure and the different material and human resources that allow the transformation and processing of natural raw materials. Agriculture, for its part, consists of the activities that are carried out to till and cultivate the land with the objective of obtaining these raw materials.
Agribusiness, therefore, is an economic sector that includes activities related to preparing, transforming, and marketing agricultural-type products. In the broadest sense, agribusiness can be divided into food (it transforms raw materials into food with different formats and properties) and non-food (raw materials are destined for different industrial processes that are not linked to food).
In addition to everything indicated, we cannot overlook the fact that agribusiness can be classified into other groups. Thus, for example, if we start from what the raw materials are, we come across the agribusinesses that are suppliers of those and those that directly consume them.
In the same way, if we use as a criterion or parameter the destination of the products they are responsible for offering, we find two different types:
– Agro-industries that are oriented towards what is export. Within these we must also point out a subdivision, since they can be classified into two: those that export what are traditional products and those that do the same with non-traditional products.
-The agro-industries that are focused on what is the internal market. In this case, we come across those that offer basic products and those that do the same but with products that are not considered basic.
An example of agribusiness is found with the production of beef for human consumption. The process can include everything from raising cows in a field to producing hamburgers that are sold frozen, through the slaughterhouse, obtaining the meat itself, processing, packaging, and cold storage.
In the same way, we must emphasize that, in recent years, in certain corners of Spain there has been a considerable increase in the number of agro-industries that are specialized in the manufacture of Iberian sausages from the meat of pigs that are raised following the highest quality seal.
The production of preserves and jams, the pasteurization of milk, the production of concentrated fruit juices, the production of fishmeal and the manufacture of olive oil are just some of the processes that can be developed within the framework of an agro-industry.
So important is agribusiness that in some countries, within their governments, there are specialized ministries. This would be the case, for example, in Argentina.
