Economy & Industries

With one of the best climates in the world, the Canary Islands attract millions of tourists every year – and its growth rates continue to increase – counting for up to 80 per cent of the gross income of the archipelago.

Today, Lanzarote’s economy is also mainly dominated by the tourism industry, which has experienced an amazing growth in recent years. About 1 1/2 million tourists visit Lanzarote annually, and tourism provides most of the jobs, especially in the construction industry, which has been thriving over the last decade. There is an estimation of about 90 per cent of the working population being involved with tourism in some way.

In the centuries following the Spanish conquest, the mainstays of the Canary Islands’ economy were various types of monocultures, such as the sugar and viticulture industries. Sugar production on the islands started right after the conquest with sugar cane that was imported from Madeira, but it declined in the middle of the 16th century due to the strong competition with Brazil and the Caribbean. Though, the downfall of the sugar-cane industry did not have much effect on Lanzarote, as its dry climate did not allow large-scale sugar-cane cultivation on the island anyway. The viticulture industry, which had its peak on the archipelago during the 16th century, collapsed at the end of the 18th century, once again for competition reasons – this time from Madeira – and diseases destroying the vineyards.

From about 1830 to 1870 the cochineal production boomed throughout the islands. On Lanzarote, large fields of prickly pear cactus plants covered the land and the production of cochineal, a red dye, which is extracted from a parasite insect living on these cactus plants, boomed. Yet, after a short time of prosperity, the appearance of chemical dyes on the market caused a considerable decrease of this industry on all islands of the archipelago, too.

Sea salt production was also a major industry on Lanzarote until the middle of the 20th century, with around 10,000 tons being produced annually. The main part of the salt production was used in the island’s fish industry for conservation and processing, but with the invention of the refrigerator, the production decreased considerably and reaches only around 2,000 tons per annum today. A small part of the production is still sold as high quality table salt and each year, during the Corpus Christi festival in June, tons of dyed salt are traditionally used in the creation of magnificent decorations in the streets and squares of Arrecife, the capital.

Strangely enough, wines as well as cochineal continued to be produced on Lanzarote more than on any other island of the archipelago. Today, Lanzarote’s wines, made of the Malvasia grape, are even considered the best of all the wines produced in the Canaries and are also mainly exported to the other islands of the archipelago. Cochineal production on Lanzarote picked up in recent years too, as nowadays the consumers manifest a strong preference for natural products and this natural red dye is used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and for the colouring of drinks and food.

As every decline of one of these monoculture industries caused big emigration waves on all the islands of the archipelago, mainly to Latin America and the Caribbean, Canarian farmers had to learn that monoculture farming was not profitable in the long run and that they had to diversify if they wanted to survive.

Due to its dry climate and lack of irrigation, Lanzarote is rather restricted with the number of crops that can be cultivated here, but onions, tomatoes and potatoes are grown in abundance. Minor crops are all kinds of vegetables, melons, pumpkins and tobacco.

Today, the basis of all crop farming on Lanzarote is a method of dry farming called enarenado, introduced by the Lanzaroteños after the volcanic eruptions in the early 18th century, which had devastated most of the island’s precious farmland. By this farming method, plants are grown in black granules of volcanic ash called picón, which has the ability to absorb humidity and prevent evaporation. Additionally, low semicircular walls shelter the plants from being dried out by the constant winds. This way, the Lanzaroteños found an ingenious and very successful farming method with excellent production results on Lanzarote’s otherwise arid and hostile land.

As Lanzarote has no meadows, you won’t find any cattle or sheep here, but, surprisingly, there are about 8,000 goats on the island, which were formerly farmed mainly for their milk, but nowadays this milk is largely used for cheese production.

With abundant fishing grounds between the east of the island and the African coast, fishing has always been a traditional mainstay of Lanzarote’s economy, making Arrecife the second largest fishing port in the Canary Islands, where large quantities of sardines, sea bass, parrotfish and cod are processed.


• TIP •

If you are self-catering – or you are looking for an island speciality to take home – you should absolutely try Lanzarote’s goats’ cheese. There are different varieties and they are all excellent!