Large Scale Octopus Farming Could be Three Years Away

Large Scale Octopus Farming Could be Three Years Away

To this point octopus cultivators in Vigo, Galicia have achieved a niche production rate of only 10 tons per year.  Historically full cultivation of cephalopods has been hampered by the animal’s highly selective feeding habits in its first two months of life, so producers catch wild octopuses and after a period of fattening, sell them at the high demand seasons of Christmas and summer when a large octopus can fetch €12 per kilo. But because this system depends on catches, farm raised octopus has not reached commercial production yet.  The Spanish Institute of Oceanography has achieved the full cultivation of octopuses using live crustacean zoeae – larvae, as a single complementary prey.  But they can be difficult to procure in large enough quantities.  Demand for octopus in the U.S. foodservice sector has increased almost 40% between 2010 and 2012.  In Japan imports of octopus increased by 23% in 2013 compared to the previous year totaling 58,400 tons, and Spanish octopus imports increased 30.5% in 2013 year on year.  The Spanish Institute of Oceanography estimates that large scale commercial production of octopus to be about three years away.  This May in Japan, the market that sets the price of octopus, was selling small octopuses of about 1 kilo each for $7,000 per ton.

 

 

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