20 Examples of Light Industry (or Light)

To economic activity oriented to the production of goods by the mediation of human action and machinery it is called industry.

The definition is almost entirely in opposition to the others economic activities in which there is no physical transformation of the property that is the full responsibility of the human being, but has more to do with the use of opportunities offered by nature: the agricultural activities, livestock and mining are the most common examples of these kinds of activities.
In any case, it is frequent that the products obtained from nature must be transformed for their consumption, so the industrial activity it is combined all the time with agrarian or mining, and to a lesser extent with livestock.

Light industry

Products made within the framework of industrial activity do not always have the same destination: the most frequent division is that established between the goods whose production is intended for the individual consumption for the satisfaction of a need, of those that are used in order to optimize some other economic activity, functioning as work tools.

That is the division between consumer goods and the capital goods, which in general is associated with the type of industry that is responsible for the respective types of goods: the industry typically associated with consumer goods is the light or light industry. For example: food, clothing, medicine. While the one related to capital goods is the heavy industry.

The light industry has the peculiarity of using much smaller amounts of materials partially processed, produce smaller objects and therefore with a relatively high added value per unit of weight.

The demand of energy of the light industrial factories are much smaller than those of the heavy industry, as much as the size of the buildings in which they are produced. As the fundamental intention is to produce goods whose destination is the consumption of the public, in light industry the product functionality is as important as its presentation, and its physical characteristics that make it tempting for potential client.

Light industry involves economic phenomena with characteristics that are its own, very different from the cases of heavy industry. For example, regional economies, typical in some areas of the Developing countries more associated with agricultural economic activities, they have a very small scope in which the development of industries of this type is only possible.

Light industry is much more compatible with Residential areas in which people live, and it is frequent that the level of employment they generate is much higher per unit of product than that of light industry: it is by This is why usually the countries with the highest level of light industry are the same ones in which the average salary of workers is very low.

Light industry development programs are typical in the undeveloped countries, with an apparent advantage that comes from the external saving that comes from the possibility of substituting eventual imports: however, these programs collide with limitations in the supply of foreign exchange to be able to sustain the importation of capital goods, necessary for these processes productive.

Examples of light or light industry

The following list includes a variety of products that are considered part of the light industry: