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Chapter 9
Farming Costs and Benefits, Marketing Details,
Investment Risks: The Case of Octopus vulgaris
in Spain
José García García, Manuel Luaces, Carlos Veiga and Manuel Rey-Méndez
J. Iglesias et al. (eds.), Cephalopod Culture, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8648-5_9,
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
J. G. García
Consejería Agricultura, Agua y Medio Ambiente de la Región de Murcia, IMIDA,
c/Mayor-Estación Sericícola, La Alberca, 30150, Murcia, Spain
e-mail: jose.garcia21@carm.es
M. Luaces
Arrecifes del Atlántico S.L., c/José Mª del Río 22,
15124, Muxía, A Coruña, Spain
C. Veiga
Samertolameu S. Coop. Galega, Urbanización O Rosal, Portal 9, Entresuelo,
Local 6, 36950, Moaña, Pontevedra, Spain
M. Rey-Méndez
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Biología, CIBUS,
Campus Vida, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15706,
Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
e-mail: manuel.rey.mendez@usc.es
Abstract The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, is an important candidate for
marine aquaculture, with optimum conditions for ongrowing such as high growth
rate, easy adaptation to captivity and feeding conditions and high market value. The
available technology for the culture of the whole life cycle is scarce and has only
been achieved on a laboratory scale because there is no commercial diet available.
For this reason, the production system is based on the capture of wild subadults,
which are kept in different types of cages and fed with species of low commercial value. From the economic point of view, work to date concentrates on cost
accounting of octopus ongrowing in floating cages in protected areas, open sea or
land-based tanks. Global results show that the production cost in land-based tanks
is generally higher than when fattening in sea cages, which may benefit the scale
economy. The highest costs in decreasing order correspond to feeding, fixed assets,
subadults purchasing and labour costs. Proper development of this activity requires
solving two limiting issues: mass production of subadults at an industrial level and
a suitable commercial diet.
Keywords Economics · Sea cages · Octopus ongrowing · Costs analysis · Profitability
Chapter 9
Farming Costs and Benefits, Marketing Details,
Investment Risks: The Case of Octopus vulgaris
in Spain
José García García, Manuel Luaces, Carlos Veiga and Manuel Rey-Méndez
J. Iglesias et al. (eds.), Cephalopod Culture, DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8648-5_9,
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
J. G. García
Consejería Agricultura, Agua y Medio Ambiente de la Región de Murcia, IMIDA,
c/Mayor-Estación Sericícola, La Alberca, 30150, Murcia, Spain
e-mail: jose.garcia21@carm.es
M. Luaces
Arrecifes del Atlántico S.L., c/José Mª del Río 22,
15124, Muxía, A Coruña, Spain
C. Veiga
Samertolameu S. Coop. Galega, Urbanización O Rosal, Portal 9, Entresuelo,
Local 6, 36950, Moaña, Pontevedra, Spain
M. Rey-Méndez
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Biología, CIBUS,
Campus Vida, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 15706,
Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain
e-mail: manuel.rey.mendez@usc.es
Abstract The common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, is an important candidate for
marine aquaculture, with optimum conditions for ongrowing such as high growth
rate, easy adaptation to captivity and feeding conditions and high market value. The
available technology for the culture of the whole life cycle is scarce and has only
been achieved on a laboratory scale because there is no commercial diet available.
For this reason, the production system is based on the capture of wild subadults,
which are kept in different types of cages and fed with species of low commercial value. From the economic point of view, work to date concentrates on cost
accounting of octopus ongrowing in floating cages in protected areas, open sea or
land-based tanks. Global results show that the production cost in land-based tanks
is generally higher than when fattening in sea cages, which may benefit the scale
economy. The highest costs in decreasing order correspond to feeding, fixed assets,
subadults purchasing and labour costs. Proper development of this activity requires
solving two limiting issues: mass production of subadults at an industrial level and
a suitable commercial diet.
Keywords Economics · Sea cages · Octopus ongrowing · Costs analysis · Profitability