PAYS DE LA LOIRE - Economy
In 2000 the regional GDP amounted to 67 milliard Euro, accounting for 4.8% of national GDP. The region?s contribution to GDP is below the demographic weight of the region. This is because of the dominance of manual worker industries and the relative absence of activities generating high value added. The GDP per inhabitant was (20 437 Euro/inh) was 13% below the national average, and 1% below the average for the provinces.
In industry, the contribution of the region represented 5.8% of France?s gross value added of the industrial sector. The region?s highest contributions were to agriculture and the construction industry, accounting for 8.1% and 6.2% respectively of France?s gross value added for these branches. Finally, the Loire region?s contribution to France?s gross value added of the market services sector was 4.1%.
The region remains a rather heterogeneous entity. Mayenne and Vendée maintain their rural, agricultural and industrial vocation. Maine-et-Loire is characterised by its agricultural activities, whereas Sarthe is more industrial. The department Loire-Atlantique has many tertiary activities.
A dynamic agricultural sector
Although the region covers only 5% of the national territory, it supplies 10% of the nation?s agricultural production. This production is diversified: livestock (cattle, pigs, poultry, milk), crops (flowers, apples, pears, mushrooms), and maritime (fishing and aquaculture). The strong and diversified agricultural sector has made possible the local development of an agri-food industry with high value-added production.
With 53 472 agricultural holdings in 2000, the Loire region ranks as one of France's most important agricultural areas. 72% of the region?s land is used for agricultural purposes. This is the second highest rate in France.
Agriculture is strongly geared towards livestock production (62% of the farms of the region). The Loire region?s farmers possess the greatest cattle herd (13.6%) and rabbit stock (28.9%) of France, and the second largest stock of pigs (11.6%) and poultry (17.5%). Moreover, the favourable climatic conditions also allow farmers in the Loire Valley to grow high value-added produce such as wine, fruit, market garden crops, horticultural products, etc. 27% of the land is pasture, 1.8% is used for wine growing and 0.5% for fruit growing. 34% of the land is arable, and from it the region produces 6% of France?s wheat production, and 7.3% of maize, and 5% of oilseed plants.
Thus the agricultural sector remains important in the region, accounting for 4.8% of the region?s gross value added in 2000.
Industry accounts for a quarter of the region's gross value added
Long considered as the most industrialised of France's rural regions, the Loire region is seeing the structure of its economic activity approach that of the country as a whole. Still in 2000 industry accounted for a quarter of the Loire region's gross value added, compared to the national average of 21%. In fact the share accounted for by industry has grown compared to 1995, from 24.0% to 25.7%. The value added generated by industry ranks the Loire region fourth among the French regions.
The agri-food industry and smelting and mechanical equipment are the two pivots of local industry. Followed by shipbuilding (including leisure boats and yachts), aeronautics (Airbus) and leather and shoe making. In 2000, the production of the agri-food industry accounted for 18% of the regions industrial valued added, intermediate goods for 29%, capital goods for 25%, and consumer goods for 15%.
Nevertheless, the structure of the economic activities in the region is open to certain risk factors: loss of confidence in food products, industrial competition, impacts on demand, redeployments difficulties in certain production industries.
The services sector plays a smaller role in the economy than it does in most of the French regions. This is because of the importance of agriculture and industry, and of the under representation of services to enterprises and of research, as well as the fact that most SMEs only outsource tertiary services to a very limited extent. In 2000 the value added generated by services to businesses accounted for 15% of the services value added of the region. This is six points lower than the national average. Wholesale and retail trade on the other hand is strongly represented. It makes up the largest share of value added of any region of France, accounting for 17.6% compared to the national average of 13.9%.
The Loire region transports the fourth biggest volume of maritime freight, with over 32.4 million tons of freight in 2000. In 2000 the road network of the region had 1 549 km of national roads, and 502 km of motorway. In 2001 there were nearly 2 million vehicles registered in the Loire region, of which 83.3% were private cars. The number of private cars in 2001 increased by 20.2% compared to 1990.
The Loire region attracts its fair share of camping tourism. Its share of nights spent in camping sites represented 8.4% in 2000, making it the fifth most popular region of metropolitan France. Hotel capacity in term of bedrooms amounted to 3% of total capacity of metropolitan France and the region?s share of national nights in hotels was 2.8% in 2000.
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