Aquaculture production on the Canary Islands

the introduction of new species as well as other modifi cations using an already approved procedure. Th e 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 fi sheries and aquaculture activities. Th e Government of the Canary Islands is convinced that artisanal fi shing and aquaculture can and should be an added tourist attraction of the Islands.

How do you anticipate diff erent EU strategies, such as farm to fork, green deal … aff ecting 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 fi nish 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. Th anks 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, fi sheries and aquaculture policies for the period 2021-2027. Th e 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 fi sheries 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.

Seabass and seabream the mainstay of Canary fi sh 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.

Spain 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 fi nfi sh, 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 fl uctuated 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. Th e 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. Th anks to their location, production conditions around the Canaries are particularly favourable for the growing of seabass 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 affi nis) 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. Th e last four or fi ve years have also seen a small production of diff erent 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 fi sh farming production and/or marketing activities. Th ese 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 fi sh while Grand Canary has six, La Palma has a couple and Lanzarote, one. Th ere 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

Production by species and year on the Canary Islands

Species Year Kilos Value (EUR) Seabream 2013 2,131,304.00 7,652,809.15 2014 2,622,780.52 8,986,071.16 2015 1,922,750.00 6,483,792.49 2016 1,701,967.00 8,663,395.42 2017 2,206,294.00 10,326,723.23 2018 1,597,200.00 8,545,872.00 2019 2,033,792.01 10,363,232.99 2020 1,605,462.00 8,598,857.21 Seabass or snook 2013 3,898,275.91 24,780,063.55 2014 4,776,234.82 26,514,094.47 2015 5,572,389.30 33,381,236.88 2016 5,262,837.00 34,286,158.68 2017 5,804,852.04 39,682,631.18 2018 5,899,829.65 40,464,876.70 2019 5,776,243.10 41,135,805.74 2020 5,127,194.00 34,856,668.78

Microalga (Dunaliella salina) 2016 318.66 17,666.66

2017 698.00 17,450.00 2018 574.44 12,330.30 2019 219.00 6,694.00 2020 56.20 2,023.20

Microalga (Tetraselmis)

Microalga (Tetraselmis spp) 2016 318.66 17,666.66

2017 245.00 18,375.00 2018 689.50 34,746.18 2019 143.00 7,141.64 2020 463.20 23,787.09

Microalga Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) 2018 48.00 1,461.60

2019 125.00 25,000.00 2020 200.00 28,916.00

Source: Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Produced by the Statistics Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands

the number of companies shrank from 9 to 5. Th e remaining producers are associated with fi ve marketing companies through which they sell their fi sh. Floating cages in the sea also reduced in number from 16 in 2015 to 10 in 2020, while raceways which reached 4 in 2016 were reduced to 1 in 2020. On the other hand, a recirculation system was established in the province of Las Palmas in 2019.

Canary farmed fi sh is mostly sold on mainland Spain

Fish sales to retail customers are primarily through supermarkets and department stores with some product also going through fi shmongers. Households account for 80-85 of the consumption on the islands with hotels, restaurants, and catering facilities responsible for the remainder. However, most of the farmed fi sh produced on the Canary Islands is sent to mainland Spain, where it is consumed on the domestic market or exported to neighbouring EU countries such as France, Italy, and Portugal. In 2019 only 15 of the production was sold on the Canary market.

Economic activity in the aquaculture sector comprises the production and marketing of seafood, but a number of ancillary industries are also supported by the presence of this sector including logistics and transport, packaging, and equipment. Both seabass and seabream are cultivated on the islands, but only from the grow out stage. Juveniles typically weighing 5-15 g are obtained either from the Spanish mainland or imported from other countries and introduced into cages in the sea where they grow to market size. Th e output of seabass amounted to just under three quarters of the combined total of these two species in 2020. Production capacity on the four islands has remained stable since 2014 at about 11,000 tonnes. Until then it had shown an upward trend, but between 2013 and 2014, three of the islands, La Palma, Tenerife and Grand Canary, experienced a decline in capacity. In 2020 total capacity which includes both sea cages and raceways reached its lowest level in the province of Las Palmas, which includes the islands Grand Canary, Fuerteventura, and Lanzarote. Compared to 2019 raceway volume declined 67 to 1,800 cubic m, while for sea cages the fall was a more modest 10 to 1,040m cubic m. However, according to the data, this capacity was fully utilised in production. In the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife which includes the islands Tenerife, La Palma, El Hierro, and La Gomera, cage capacity also declined 10 to 160,000 cubic m. Since 2018 there are no raceways in this province. Utilisation of the capacity at 73 was markedly lower than in Las Palmas. Th e recirculation aquaculture system in Las Palmas has an area of 17.5 sq. m.

Regional plan for aquaculture management should remove some constraints

In terms of tonnage per island since 2014 there has been an increase of 330 tons of production capacity in La Palma, decreases of approximately 2,800 tons in Grand Canary and 800 tons in Tenerife, and no change in capacity in Lanzarote. Capacity in 2020 stands at 1330, 1,660, 5,905, and 1,856 tonnes on La Palma, Tenerife, Grand Canary, and Lanzarote respectively and the number of installations is 1, 5, 6, and 1 respectively.

Since 2017 production has been stable on La Palma and Lanzarote, while declining in Tenerife and increasing by the same amount on Grand Canary. Th e Canary Islands were the second largest producer of seabass with 5,127 tonnes in 2020 and the third largest producer of seabream with 1,605 tonnes among Spain’s autonomous communities. Th is commendable performance could be further improved if some of the structural constraints the sector faces, including a lack of fi nancing, administrative barriers, and competition from countries where production costs are lower, were resolved. Some of these issues are addressed in the Regional Plan for the Management of Aquaculture in the Canary Islands that was