The Castiglione company sets the tonnara in Favignana

Nino Castiglione accepts the risk and restarts the story

From the Egadi Islands Facebook page - Favignana Municipality

From the Egadi Islands Facebook page - Comune di Favignana

After the decree of 17 April last on the "bluefin tuna fishing campaign - year 2019" issued by Mipaaft - Department of competitive policies, agri-food quality, horse racing and fisheries - General Directorate - for sea fishing and aquaculture, which awards a an undivided surplus of 84.69 tons to the fixed tuna fishing system, and on the occasion of World Tuna Day, which falls on May 2, the Castiglione company officially announces the operations to reduce the Favignana tuna trap.

Aware that at the moment this activity is not to be considered economically sustainable, Nino Castiglione accepts the entrepreneurial risk with the hope of sharing a guaranteed quota and a future increase of the same. This is an important achievement, for which the company has worked hard.

The most significant action took place in April 2016 when Castiglione descended the tonnara in Favignana, without rights to the fish, to save it from certain cancellation by the European Union. The operation required a substantial and non-repayable investment, given the impossibility of marketing the catch due to the failed allocation of quotas to the island. A sacrifice that averted the death of the Favignana trap and that led in 2017 - thanks also to the joint efforts of the Ministry, the Sicilian Region and the Favignana Municipality - to its registration among the traps due quota.

In November 2018, the Mipaaft accredits Nino Castiglione as a subject in possession of the technical-administrative requisites for the decrease of the Favignana trap, without however defining the quota for the same.

It is only with the last decree of 17 April, that the allocation criteria are clarified; criteria that arouse no small concern in the Castiglione home: “The current distribution of the quotas does not guarantee the economic sustainability of the tonnara. The entrepreneurial risk is very high - says Filippo Amodeo, director of the Castiglione company - but our ambition is to be a technical partner of local and national administrations and together with them to give dignity to our territory through sustainable fishing, induced fishing and tourism , the revival of ancient crafts, excellent productions ".

Castiglione's commitment is explained by reconstructing its history: its founder Nino Castiglione has worked with the Florio tonnara in Favignana since he was young. His entrepreneurial attitude brought him back to the island in the 1980s, as manager of the entire plant and of the plant. At his death in 1987, the heirs continued the management of the Florio tuna fishery until 1996. Returning to the management of tuna fisheries in Favignana is therefore an ambition for the Castiglione heirs: the memory of their origins and control of the entire supply chain.

For years the Castiglione company has been the leading canned tuna producer with the main brands of Italian large-scale retail trade and - an industrial reality with 230 employees already - it cares about local employment. Lowering the trap is equivalent to employing around 50 workers and involving a significant number of employees. Furthermore, the resumption of fishing means recovering the processing and canning of the bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean. To this end, the Castiglione family has acquired the Florio brand, the future spokesman of a zero km production, expression of a territory and its excellence. Thus closing a virtuous circle started with the founder, continued with the children and grandchildren, woven with passion and professionalism and with the networks finally back to the sea.

 

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