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Africa
A recent analysis by the Rhenus Group has identified the crucial role of connectivity between the Canary Islands and the mainland in the archipelago's trade relations. This is driven by a consistent growth in imports from the rest of Spain.
The Canary Islands and the rest of Spain have set a new trade record in 2023, with a total of 18,691 million euros exchanged. The Canary Islands Institute of Statistics data, analysed by the Rhenus Group, one of the leading global providers of logistics services and specialised in transport with the Canary Islands, shows that this increase has occurred despite the overall fall in trade in the archipelago, which has registered a decrease of 1.2 percent, with a volume of 25,371 million euros in exports and imports.
The main driver of this growth has been the increase in imports from the mainland, which have reached 17,703 million euros, representing a 1.3 percent increase compared to the previous year. Since 2014, imports from the rest of Spain to the Canary Islands have increased by 70 percent, reflecting a positive trend over the last decade.
Meanwhile, exports from the Canary Islands to the rest of Spain have experienced a decline of 5.9 percent, reaching a total of 987.7 million euros in 2023. Despite this decline, the evolution over the last decade shows greater stability, with a slight 0.7% increase since 2014.
"Never before have there been so many goods transported between the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain, and with such a high economic value. The transport of goods between the mainland and the archipelago has stabilised at a constant flow of almost 10 million tonnes and is already approaching the 20,000 million euro mark in economic terms," says Andreu Gutiérrez, Country Sales Director Road of the Rhenus Group in Spain.
Rhenus is a leading logistics operator in these commercial flows, with over 40 years of experience in the islands. It has established a network of its own facilities in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, and Fuerteventura, equipped with customs warehouses and a large team of over 250 professionals. The company handles over 20,000 maritime containers annually.
The analysis, which can be accessed via this link, shows that for the fourth year in a row, imports from Spain account for more than 80 percent of the Canary Islands' total purchases. In terms of exports, 30 percent of the products shipped outside the archipelago are destined for the mainland. In total, three out of four of the products that the Canary Islands export have the rest of Spain as their point of departure or arrival.
The most imported goods from Spain are fuels, which account for more than 20 percent of purchases, followed by sectors such as cars, medicines, electrical machinery and mechanical appliances, which account for another 30 percent of imports. On the other hand, the Canary Islands' exports to Spain are dominated by products from the primary sector, such as fruit, tobacco and fish, which account for 37% of sales, although there is also diversification towards articles related to the automotive, plastics, electrical and mechanical machinery sectors.
"All this diversity of traffic, from everyday consumer goods to the most complex industrial products, and the imbalance between import and export volumes, adds to the complexity of managing logistics in an archipelago. At Rhenus, we will continue to work to achieve a robust and flexible supply chain that can respond with maximum capacity to the needs of Canary Islands companies," concludes Andreu Gutiérrez.