In the logistics business, when the machinery of global trade suffers friction, freight forwarders feel the impact long before any other player in the chain. From October 1 to 4, FETEIA-OLTRA, Spain’s leading sector representative body, will bring together more than 200 senior executives, customs officials and port executives in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for its biennial gathering. Deliberations in the Canary Islands will be shaped by a sober, analytical reality marked by volatility along supply routes, the geopolitical environment, stricter European environmental standards and a decisive generational change at the industry’s helm.
The choice of venue is a calculated nod to regional geopolitics. Located at the intersection of maritime corridors linking Europe, Africa and the Americas, the Canary Islands provide an ideal backdrop for a sector grappling with the forced redesign of supply chains and regulatory reforms. Senior officials from the Customs Department of the Tax Agency, the General Secretariat for Sustainable Mobility and the country’s main port authorities—including Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia and Algeciras—will take part in the event alongside corporate logistics executives.
Behind the technical discussions on customs compliance and digitalization lies a major institutional transition. The opening day will host the federation’s Electoral Assembly, which will formally mark the end of Enric Ticó’s 21-year term at the head of the industry association. Ticó, who has led Spain’s freight-forwarding operations through two decades marked by commercial expansion, severe pandemic-related peaks in disruption and subsequent supply-chain restructuring, will hand over the reins to Víctor Martín. Martín, a veteran with more than 40 years of experience in international transport who currently chairs the Basque employers’ association ATEIA Euskadi and the federation’s Maritime Commission, heads the only candidacy in the race. His incoming administration faces the immediate imperative of preserving the operating margins of Spanish intermediaries as Brussels accelerates the rollout of increasingly demanding sustainability mandates and stricter customs frameworks.
Ticó recently said ahead of the October event that international trade is changing at an extraordinary pace and that freight forwarders are on the front line of that transformation. For the outgoing executive, Tenerife will represent an opportunity to anticipate the changes ahead and strengthen the sector’s underlying currency of exchange, based on trust and institutional relationships.
The concern running through the industry stems less from local port operations than from the EU’s regulatory direction. In recent months, FETEIA has repeatedly conveyed to the Ministry of Transport its concern over the commercial impact and bureaucracy arising from the new foreign-trade controls and the European Union’s environmental reporting mechanisms. Freight forwarders warn that administrative bottlenecks risk eroding the competitiveness of mainland Spain and the archipelagos compared with other logistics hubs in North Africa and the Mediterranean that are not subject to EU regulations.
The Atlantic archipelago aims to consolidate its position as a resilient support platform for mid-Atlantic trade flows. Beyond the formal sessions and working days backed by 36 government and corporate sponsors, including Aena, Puertos del Estado and the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona, the Tenerife gathering will measure the extent to which medium-sized European logistics operators are prepared to absorb the costs of the fragmentation of global trade. For an industry whose raison d’être is to ensure that goods cross borders quietly, the Tenerife gathering will test whether Spanish freight forwarders can redefine their business model before the next geopolitical shock forces them to do so.
Feteia 2026 brings logistics leaders to Tenerife as the EU customs challenge and Enric Ticó’s succession loom was first published on canarymaritime.com.
