The fashion industry, supermarkets and hypermarkets, construction and the road haulage are, in order, the economic sectors that generate the greatest number of jobs in Galicia. According to data published in the 2020 Ardán report, in 2018 the textile industry supported a total of 38,000 wholesale and retail jobs, and the direct-to-consumer food distribution sector supported 14,712 jobs.

Beyond job creation and its contribution to GDP, the food and textile sectors are, along with the automotive, construction and timber use and management sectors, key industries in Galicia when it comes to exports. With this in mind, along with the importance of international expansion for the economic development of the Galician Community, the Regional Government of Galicia has created diverse support programmes to ensure the productive network can target foreign markets and that already existing export companies strengthen and expand their business presence in the global market.

Commitment to digitalisation and market diversification forms a large part of the Regional Government's plan to facilitate the business network’s international expansion. As featured in Galicia’s new Internationalisation Strategy for 2021-2025, the programme will be built on four pillars: innovation, talent recruitment, backing in target markets and dissemination of success stories. The last of these, according to Igape's Internationalisation Department, is reflected in the experiences of Galician businesses with a global presence, mostly within the agri-food (Nueva Pescanova, Hijos de Rivera, Martín Códax, Calvo, VIMA Foods, Grupo Pereira, Pescapuerta and Profand, among other comanies), textile (Adolfo Domínguez, Bimba y Lola and Roberto Verino, as well as Inditex), foresty (Finsa and Malasa), shipping (Gabadi), automotive (Marsan) and construction (Cortizo, Copasa and Constructora San José) sectors.

However, the international expansion of companies whose activity centres on new Information Communication Technology (ICT) and even in the biotechnology sector is also worth noting, as with Trison or Televés for the former and Zendal for the latter. 

Encouraging Internationalisation

The development of digital technology has great potential to improve competitiveness in the international market. As such, the digital internationalisation of businesses is the focus of the Regional Government of Galicia, which will promote 700 companies through the Galicia Export Digital programme and plans to support another 1000 organisations by 2025 with a budget of up to 24 million euros.

Galicia Exports and Galicia Export Digital are joined by the Plan for the Promotion of Galician Exports (Foexga). Among the grants and resources to help give Galician companies a place in international markets, Igape and chambers of commerce are collaborating to implement a new plan of joint promotional actions abroad, which will boost the presence of Galician businesses at international fairs and exhibitions.

Thus, the actions included in the Foexga Plan 2021-2022  aim to increase the number of exporting companies; promote and consolidate the presence of Galician companies in international markets; achieve greater sectoral and geographical diversification of exports, and disseminate the culture of internationalisation as a tool for progress and competitiveness.

This push for internationalisation has allowed Galicia to continue improving its excellent foreign sales results, to the point that Galician exports have set a new record and total more than 25 billion euros in 2021.