Spain, the country located on the Iberian Peninsula is the second largest in Western Europe with the population 45 million people.

The Spanish economy is the ninth biggest worldwide and fifth largest in Europe. The economy is mainly driven by the tourism sector , the second biggest in the world,  and by construction.  Other important industries are food an beverages, shipbuilding, and fisheries.

Spain has the largest tuna fleet in the European union, consisting out of longliners, purse seiners, pole and line vessels. These vessels operate for part in the meditereannen ( bluefin), in the Northern Atlantic ( Albacore , while the majority of the capacity and the largest vessels operate in all other oceans targeting skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye.

Spain is also the most important canned seafood processing nation within the European Union.  The country has a long  tradition of tuna consumption which goes back  more than 2 thousand years. Its canning industry started about a hundred years ago,. In order to meet today’s domestic canned tuna demand, 144 canneries operate in Spain. 67 of these are based in Galicia and accounted 60% of the total annual tuna canning production within the EU. Each year, the approximately 12.000 operators working in the tuna sector within the Galician region are canning a total of 350.000 tons of tuna, of which 80.000 tons are produced directly from frozen pre-cooked tuna loins – which are mostly imported from outside the European Union.

The predominant cansize found is the Spanish supermarkets is the tiny 80 grams can, which has a 52 gram drained weight. This can which is mostly sold with an easy opening lid, is always sold in carton cluster-packs of three cans.

Unlike other European markets where the 1880 or 66,5ooz tuna can is used within the catering sector, the Spanish restaurants and schools prefer the traditional 1000g can.

Tuna in brine can hardly be found in Spain, 99% of the consumption is tuna in oil, this could either be soya or sunflower oil, or olive oil for the premium packs.

The preferred and mostly sold species is yellowfin ( atun claro), however also skipjack ( atun) takes a significant share. The locally caught Bonito del Norte ( Atlantic Albacore ) is sold as premium brand – mostly in glas jars.

Despite the domestic fabrication, the country imports some canned tuna as well. Over Jan. and Jun. 2007 it bought in 2.201.689 cartons (48x185g) of the item. The majority came from outside the EU which was 2.177.815 units when the rest was from others European members.

Analyzing the canned tuna purchase from outside the EU, the biggest foreign supplier is Ecuador, with 1.359.685 cases which was 29% more than in the previous year. Its average prices were at the level of US$ 26,31 per carton,  significantly lower than average Spanish importing value over all canned imports of US$ 30.35. Also the tuna from Guatemala, Mauritius and Morocco quite a significant amount was delivered and among them the lowest average price was from Mauritius, US $ 31.93 per carton.

But when we look at the Spanish import from other EU members, the volumes are tiny.  Spain got from France only 11.937 cases at US$ 35,83 average. The France quantity equaled 50% of the entire inside import. Also Spain got the canned product from Portugal, Italy and UK. Within these three countries the best offer submitted Portugal which was US $ 10.96. Spanish market got 5.631 cases from its western neighbor, which was a four times more compared with the same period in 2006.

In terms of avg. canned tuna consumption Spanish consumers eat  2,3 kg per capita each year, which is the highest in Europe, and among the highest in the world.  The most popular way of tuna eating is with salads and as a starter.

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