The purpose of this paper is to analyse the barriers perceived by agribusiness companies in Extremadura; how these barriers influence their disposition to innovate and the type of public actions demanded by these companies in order to boost innovation. Data comes from an ad hoc survey conducted in 2013. The methodology used combines descriptive analysis with factor analysis and econometric analysis. Main results show that high costs and risks, lack of human resources and difficulties of appropriability are the barriers that reduce the probability to innovate, and that there are important differences among the perceived factors of obstacles and demands of public actions. This can be a reference to develop government policies specifically geared towards boosting innovation in this kind of industry.