In the middle of the 19th century, on the coast of Italy, a country that had been an expert in the art of salting since the centuries of splendor of the Roman Empire, there was a crisis in the fishing industry that forced a search for new areas where the activity could be carried out. Great Britain and northern Spain were the chosen areas. Here, above all, there was an abundance of tuna and anchovy, the latter a fish highly appreciated by the Italians and which was hardly ever used as bait in Spain.

Little by little, Italian companies dedicated to the salting industry disembarked in our region.

One of these entrepreneurs, Giovanni Vella Scatagliota, is the founder of this activity in Cantabria. He was responsible for the first fixed installation and the elaboration of the anchovy fillet as we know it today, incorporating women into the working world with the job of "sobadoras". At that time, the anchovies began to be distributed in rectangular tins in which the anchovies were preserved in butter, a way of mitigating the strong flavor of the fish and its excess salt. Later Vella changed it for olive oil, abundant in Spain.

Since then, the canning industry in Cantabria has only increased and specialized.

Santander, Santoña, Laredo, Castro Urdiales and Noja are the ports where we find more canneries. They work mainly with anchovies, but also with tuna, octopus, mussels, cockles and other sea delicacies.

Cantabria now has 80 canning and semi-preserving companies that export their products to a large and growing number of countries around the world.

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