After an investment of 50 million euros, the port of Tarfaya once again meets the necessary safety and operational conditions to reestablish a regular transport line with the Canary Islands.
The consortium of companies Puerto de Tarfaya Canarias recently met with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Transport and Logistics of Morocco, Khalid Cherkaoui, with the organization of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the General Directorate of Economic Affairs with Africa, and with the assistance of the Spanish Embassy in Rabat.
The Moroccan port now has a docking line of 225 meters long, a commercial operations area of 10,000 square meters and an industrial development zone of another 84,000.
In addition, a 400 m2 ramp adapted for Roll-On/Roll-Off vessels has been built and dredging work has been carried out to improve navigability and safety. These significant improvements ensure that the port of Tarfaya meets the technical requirements necessary for the resumption of the maritime connection with Puerto del Rosario.
The objective of the meeting was to take the proposal to reopen the maritime line between the Moroccan port of Tarfaya and the Canary port of Puerto del Rosario to a more technical and concrete level, as was raised in the visit of the commercial delegation that the regional president led on the 15th and 16th of last March to the Alawite economic authorities and institutions and continued during the month of April in the correspondence between both parties.
In fact, in response to those negotiations, Ángel Víctor Torres received a letter from the Moroccan Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohammed Abdeljalil, communicating his intention to hold a meeting to advance the implementation of the maritime route, which would be, "an important step in strengthening trade and logistics ties between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdom of Spain".
Support for private initiative
As a result, Elena Máñez, Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, led the Canary delegation in the meeting, which, in addition to business representatives, included the Deputy Minister of Public Works and Transport, Gustavo Santana, and the General Director of Economic Affairs with Africa, Nasara Cabrera.
In the meeting, the Minister showed her support for the private initiative to relaunch the maritime connection, understanding that it would strengthen the economic, social and cultural ties between the two shores, "since today there is no direct passenger line by sea between the Canary Islands and Morocco" and, as for goods, "it can have a positive economic impact on the entry of goods from Morocco to Europe and vice versa, as an export point from Europe to the Alawite kingdom".
These negotiations aim to resume the route that was already implemented between December 2007 and April 2008 between Puerto del Rosario and Tarfaya, with good acceptance in the 43 trips that could be made, before the shipwreck of the ferry that operated on the route, very close to the Moroccan port.