Editing Carmarthenshire (section)

== Economy ==
[[File:Iron works at Llanelly.jpeg|thumb|Etching of ironworks near [[Llanelli]] by [[John George Wood]], 1811]]
[[File:Allt-y-Cafan Mill and Weir, Pentrecwrt.jpg|thumb|Allt-y-cafan Mill beside the [[River Teifi]] from which it got its power]]
Agriculture and forestry are the main sources of income over most of the county of Carmarthenshire. On improved pastures, dairying is important and in the past, the presence of the railway enabled milk to be transported to the urban areas of England.<ref name=FBM/> The creamery at [[Whitland]] is now closed but milk processing still takes place at Newcastle Emlyn where [[mozzarella]] cheese is made.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dairypartners.co.uk/our-locations/ |title=Our locations: Newcastle Emlyn |publisher=Dairy Partners |access-date=20 April 2016}}</ref> On upland pastures and marginal land, livestock rearing of cattle and sheep is the main agricultural activity.<ref name=Lloyd/> The estuaries of the Loughor and Towy provide pickings for the [[Cerastoderma edule|cockle]] industry.<ref name=FBM/>

Llanelli, Ammanford and the upper parts of the Gwendraeth Valley are situated on the [[South Wales Coalfield]]. The opencast mining activities in this region have now ceased but the old mining settlements with terraced housing remain, often centred on their [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] chapels. [[Kidwelly]] had a [[Tinning|tin-plating]] industry in the eighteenth century, with Llanelli following not long after, so that by the end of the nineteenth century, Llanelli was the world-centre of the industry. There is little trace of these industrial activities today. Llanelli and [[Burry Port]] served at one time for the export of [[coal]], but trade declined, as it did from the ports of Kidwelly and Carmarthen as their estuaries silted up. Country towns in the more agricultural part of the county still hold regular markets where livestock is traded.<ref name=Lloyd/>

In the north of the county, in and around the Teifi Valley, there was a thriving woollen industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here water-power provided the energy to drive the looms and other machinery at the [[Textile manufacturing|mills]]. The village of [[Dre-fach Felindre]] at one time contained twenty-four mills and was known as the "Huddersfield of Wales". The demand for woollen cloth declined in the twentieth century and so did the industry.<ref>''The Woollen Mills of Wales'', a leaflet from National Museum Wales.</ref>

In 2014, West Wales was identified as the worst-performing region in the United Kingdom along with the South Wales Valleys. The [[gross value added]] economic indicator showed a figure of £14,763 per head in these regions, as compared with a GVA of £22,986 for [[Cardiff]] and the [[Vale of Glamorgan]].<ref>{{cite news
 |title=West Wales the worst performing economy in the UK
 |url=http://www.carmarthenjournal.co.uk/West-Wales-worst-performing-economy-UK/story-25522049-detail/story.html
 |newspaper=Carmarthen Journal
 |date=10 December 2014
 |access-date=18 April 2016
}}{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Welsh Assembly Government is aware of this, and helped by government initiatives and local actions, opportunities for farmers to diversify have emerged. These include farm tourism, rural crafts, specialist food shops, farmers' markets and added-value food products.<ref name=Nienaber>{{cite book|author=Nienaber, Birte|title=Globalization and Europe's Rural Regions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFurCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-12709-3 |pages=76–83}}</ref>

In 2015, in an attempt to boost the local economy, Carmarthenshire County Council produced a fifteen-year plan that highlighted six projects which it hoped would create five thousand new jobs. The sectors involved would be in the "creative industries, tourism, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, energy and environment, and financial and professional services".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/business/fifteen-year-plan-to-boost-carmarthenshire-economy |title=Fifteen-year plan to boost Carmarthenshire economy |author=Farrell, Stephen |date=23 November 2015 |publisher=Insider Media Limited |access-date=18 April 2016}}</ref>