Inside the Santa Catarina Tuna Cannery: A Deep Dive into Azorean Seafood Heritage
If you ask most people what São Jorge Island in the Azores is known for, they’ll probably say, cheese. And while I’ll never argue against the power of São Jorge cheese (it might honestly be my favorite thing on the planet), there’s another story here that deserves just as much attention - the story of tuna (the most important fishery to the islands!), and the factory that has defined seafood heritage on this island for generations: the Santa Catarina tuna cannery.
Santa Catarina is the largest employer on São Jorge - an island with fewer than 9,000 residents. Generations of families have found steady work here, and in a place where economic opportunities can be scarce, that stability has kept people rooted on the island rather than forced to leave.
The factory produces exclusively canned tuna, mostly skipjack, landed by boats fishing in the waters surrounding the Azores and Madeira. From a sustainability perspective, it’s also important to note that skipjack tuna is one of the more resilient species, and the Azores have a long history of responsible fishing practices. The boats landing fish here are small-scale, working under strict quotas, and deeply connected to their communities. Most of the fish being landed here is actually caught file pole and line fishing - one of the most sustainable fishing methods in the world.
Hand-Packed Tradition in a Global Industry
Walking through the factory, the first thing that hit me wasn’t the noise or the machinery, it was the rhythm of human hands at work. Just like Conservas Pinhais in Matosinhos, Santa Catarina still hand-packs every can in their factory. In an era where most of the world has turned to machines for speed and uniformity, this factory has held on to the craft, believing that precision, care, and tradition matter.
The tuna is cooked and carefully portioned before being packed by hand into cans, alongside high quality olive oil, herbs, and vegetables that also come from the islands. While you can always purchase the classic tuna in olive oil, Santa Catarina has also expanded their offerings over the years to include other flavors that showcase the islands including: 4 Pepper, Azorean pepper, fennel, ginger, thyme, and oregano.
And that strong sense of place is carried through every bite in each tin. When you buy Santa Catarina tuna, you’re not just buying fish, you’re buying into the story of the Azores and the people who live here.
Why This Cannery Matters
Globally, canned tuna is often treated as cheap protein, something you buy on sale and throw into a quick meal or stock up for the apocalypse. But Santa Catarina flips that idea on its head. Their tuna is celebrated in Portugal and beyond, often found in specialty food shops and praised for its quality. The fact that it’s hand-packed, that it comes from Azorean waters, with the highest quality olive oils and herbs, and that it supports small island economies makes it not just a can of tuna, but a story in itself.
For São Jorge, it’s economic stability. For the Azores, it's cultural heritage. And for consumers, it’s a chance to taste seafood that still carries the fingerprints of the people who made it.
As the ferry carried me back to Pico that evening, São Jorge’s cliffs fading into the horizon and a wheel of cheese and a dozen cans of tuna tucked into my bag, I kept thinking about the quiet importance of this place. The Santa Catarina tuna cannery is a symbol of resilience, heritage, and the deep relationship the Azores has with the sea. It’s exactly the kind of place that I dreamt of visiting and sharing when I started on this journey.
