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the introduction of new species as well as other modifications using an already approved procedure. The compatibility of aquaculture with other uses of the area is a path that we have begun to explore also in the archipelago with the combination of tourism with fisheries and aquaculture activities. The Government of the Canary Islands is convinced that artisanal fishing and aquaculture can and should be an added tourist attraction of the Islands.
How do you anticipate different EU strategies, such as farm to fork, green deal … affecting the aquaculture sector on the Canary Islands? Do you see them leading to better conditions and more investment in the sector? By 2023 the Canary Islands will finish the projects receiving the support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) assigned to our islands because of the boost that aquaculture
is enjoying at the moment on the archipelago. Thanks to this record, our Autonomous Community has managed to maintain its allocation of support in the European Maritime, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Fund, which is the new fund to support the implementation of the EU‘s maritime, fisheries and aquaculture policies for the period 2021-2027. The sustainable and responsible aquaculture carried out on our coasts is compatible with the other strategies promoted by the
European Union, which is why projects promoted by the Canary Islands receive support from EU funds. We have an important job ahead of us in terms of making use of the support available to producers of certain fisheries and aquaculture products on the Canary Islands under a government programme called POSEICAN Pesca. We are the only outermost region of the Union that has successfully developed this activity and the coming years will be decisive.
Aquaculture production on the Canary Islands
Seabass and seabream the mainstay of Canary fish farming While seabass and seabream have long been produced on the Canary Islands thanks to favourable climatic conditions, other species such as sole and shrimp have also been cultivated. If all goes to plan, two new species, octopus and seriola, will be farmed on the island in the future.
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pain is the biggest producer of farmed seafood in the EU in terms of volume (by value though that honour goes to France). Spanish aquaculture production is spread between the sea, in brackish water, and on land and includes finfish, bivalves, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA) show that over the decade to 2020, total production has fluctuated around 285,000 tonnes with a peak of 320,000 tonnes in 2018 and a low of 226,000 tonnes in 2013. Between 2016 and 2019 production increased steadily but then fell back in 2020 due to the pandemic. The unit value of production has increased fairly steadily over the period from EUR1.63/kg to EUR2.06/kg an
increase of 27. Mussels, seabass, trout, and seabream dominate the production accounting for 92 of the total of which mussels contribute 76.
A history of farming different species Fish and seafood farming is distributed in several of the Spanish autonomous communities both along the coast and inland (where rainbow trout is grown in freshwater). Valencia has the highest output followed by Galicia, while third place falls to the Canary Islands, an archipelago in the Atlantic off the west coast of Africa. Thanks to their location, production conditions around the Canaries are particularly favourable for the growing of seabass
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as well as other species. Grand Canary, for example, has been selected as the site for the production of two new species, amberjack (Seriola dumerili) and the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). Other species, such as Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis), common sole (Solea solea), jinga shrimp (Metapenaeus affinis) and whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) were also cultivated, but data from MAPA show that production of the soles stopped in 2015 and of the shrimps in 2018. The last four or five years have also seen a small production of different species of microalgae, spirulina (Arthrospira platensis), Tetraselmis spp. and Dunaliella salina. In a 2022 report on the blue economy of the Canary Islands
authored by the Technological Centre for Marine Sciences (CETECIMA), data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands show that of the eight islands in the archipelago four have fish farming production and/or marketing activities. These are La Palma, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote (the other islands are Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, and La Graciosa). Tenerife, the biggest island has eight companies producing or marketing farmed fish while Grand Canary has six, La Palma has a couple and Lanzarote, one. There has been a degree of consolidation in the industry over the last years with the number of production companies declining on Tenerife in particular where
