In 2019 Nueva Pescanova announced that the company had managed successfully to complete the octopus reproduction cycle in aquaculture. Shortly after the data on the project to install an octopus breeding construction was announced and now the project begins to settle down without controversy.
Nueva Pescanova would invest around 45 million euros and generate at least 300 jobs through this project. Nueva Pescanova is still seeking licenses to build its facilities in the Canary Islands and expects to be operating and distributing up to 3,000 tons of octopus per year within a year.
However, these are all the details that are known about the project, which aims not to give clues to the competition, but the novelty of its farm has also opened many questions to the public.
On the one hand, some defend octopus farming, which tries to supply the consumption that has soared in recent years from 1.2 billion euros in 2010 to 2.5 billion in 2019, according to FAO data. These data are especially remarkable in Spain because the territory has quadrupled in the last decade. However, some are against it.
Different environmental activists and scientists argue that this is animal abuse, because octopuses, unlike other animals, are solitary animals accustomed to constant darkness; characteristics that are difficult to provide on a farm. In addition, according to some scientific research, octopuses are more intelligent animals, capable of feeling pain and pleasure.
For the time being, Nueva Pescanova is moving forward with the Project and we will know if the Project continues to progress or not in the future.
Nueva Pescanova is a Spanish multinational leader in the seafood market sector and also is one of the few companies present in the entire value chain: fish, grow, process and market more than 70 species of fish and seafood in 80 countries around the world.
