Industry in Lanzarote

Despite the lack of rainfall and poor agricultural soil, the people of Lanzarote contrive to produce onions, tomatoes and potatoes for export. Also grown are melons, peach, beans, lentils, chickpeas and maize. The wine of the island (Malvasia) is good, rather like dry sherry, and can be 17 percent proof. Sufficient is produced for it to be exported.

Until recently, Tenerife and Gran Canaria were the only islands with full holiday facilities. Now, Lanzarote is rapidly developing and it aims to attract holiday makers from every corner of the world. During the last twelve years, tourism has been progressing successfully and cruise ships are able to dock, car and passenger ferries arrive regularly. A modern airport in Arrecife provides frequent flights to the UK and the rest of Europe. Most of the tourist complexes are in the south, where the best beaches are found, but other holiday areas are dotted towards the northern end of the island. Luxury hotels, villas and apartments, restaurants and entertainments of international quality maintain a high standard. Much of the economy in Lanzarote is therefore generated around the tourist industry.

Practically none of the cultivation is irrigated in Lanzarote, so it must rely on what rainfall and moisture there is. The people of Lanzarote have overcome this difficulty by covering the soil with black volcanic ash (picon) to a depth of about ten to fifteen centimetres. The ash stops evaporation and also absorbs the early morning dew, which provides moisture for the underlying soil. The soil and ash have to be replaced every twenty to thirty years. All round the island, the pattern of the landscape is black ash, small volcanic humps and oases of neat white modern buildings, with green palm trees, making a graceful contract to the sharper outlines.

Fishing helps the Lanzarote economy. The fleet operates mainly off the neighbouring coast of North Africa. Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote is a busy port with a fish-canning industry and a huge desalination plant which is the life blood of this Canary Island, turning the sea water into much needed drinking water for daily use. Large salt pans at Junubio produce about 10,000 tons annually and most of it is used in the conservation of fish, though it is also refined and used for kitchen and table salt.