Co-Operatives: Spain and Portugal

As in Italy, co-operatives are extremely important in Iberia, where grapes are so often grown alongside other crops. More than 60% of each vintage was delivered to one of Spain’s 1,000 wine co-operatives or Portugal’s 300 (see portugal, history) in the late 1980s, although the proportion had dropped to 55% by 2014 in Spain, and after Portugal’s entry into the eu in 1986 the private sector has grown significantly as regulations which favoured production by the co-operatives were relaxed and EU funds resulted in substantial investment in the wine industry. In consequence, by 2011, Portugal had 90 active co-operatives accounting for 43% of the country’s production.