Introduction 

The increase in global demand for fish and shellfish has led to a scenario where increased aquaculture production has become a challenge, as well as an opportunity, imperative duty, and a responsible obligation for increasing the supply of protein in the coming decades (Urquiza 2014).

Aquaculture has grown rapidly around the world, exhibiting the fastest rate of growth of any food production sector during the last 40 years (FAO 2020; Troell et al. 2014). Therefore, aquaculture is considered one of the main solutions for increasing food production. Mexico is endowed with sufficient natural resources, infrastructure, capital, and market demand to both develop the domestic aquaculture sector and to create value and be competitive in global export markets (Platas-Rosado et al. 2017; Platas-Rosado and Vilaboa-Arroniz 2014). The main species produced in Mexico is tilapia, which accounts for 37% of total aquaculture output (by volume). The other main species produced are shrimp (Penaeus vannamei is the dominant commercial species) 37%, oyster (Crassostrea gigas) 11%, carp (Cyprinus carpio) 7.5%, with other species contributing 7.5% of total output. Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Veracruz states account for around 54% of aquaculture production (CONAPESCA 2017).

A cluster is a conglomeration of organisations with homogeneous and interconnected activities of different magnitude, similar characteristics, usually located in a given geographical area with shared distribution channels, facing common threats and opportunities and generating competitive advantages (Porter 2003; Bada and Rivas 2010). The operationalisation of the cluster concept at micro level refers to small entrepreneurs willing to take joint initiatives of direct and tangible utility for each of the participants (Bada and Rivas 2010). Clusters are important for industrial and regional development strategy (Doloreux et al. 2009), and their creation and promotion are a key instrument of public policy (OECD 2005; Wolfe 2005).

The results of previous research suggest that clusters generate relationships of trust between the members of the groups, which facilitate decision-making to adopt practices and technologies, as in the case of shrimp farmers in Vietnam (Joffre et al. 2020), in Consequently, the sustainable use of productive resources is possible. In the same way, it is recognized that although aquaculture farmers face challenges such as globalisation, regulatory frameworks, and the demands of a market that demand specific production standards, they can face them through participation in clusters as in the case of India and Thailand (Kassam et al. 2011). In Latin America, clusters are considered part of the solution for sustainable agriculture by promoting the market for agri-food products in a context of growing demand for food, industrial goods, and biofuels. In addition, the competitiveness of the clusters is related to a form of organisation of the companies that reduces marketing and production costs that achieves collaborative work in companies with similar economic activities that are located in the same territory (Tapia et al. 2015; Zayas-Barreras et al. 2017; Zhang et al. 2019; Joffre et al. 2019).

In recent years, policymakers have been interested in this public policy instrument that seeks to eliminate economic disparities at the regional level (Doloreux et al. 2009); to implement innovations, based on interactive learning and regional externalities (Doloreux 2004; Asheim et al. 2006); and to provide development and business competitiveness (OECD 2005). Indeed, clusters promote innovation, improve productivity, increase regional businesses competitiveness, and provide support to emerging sectors (Asheim et al. 2006;World Bank et al. 2007; Doloreux et al. 2009). The cluster approach is not only an economic policy mechanism or a business promotion tool, it is rather a specific development model that articulates the potential advantages of cluster formation at the local or regional level (Ramirez 2003).

Given the importance of aquaculture to food security in Mexico (Greaves 2015; Martínez-Cordero et al. 2021), it is necessary to implement public policies to develop cluster governance to increase the potential of aquaculture, this can follow the example of successful clusters already endorsed by the state governments in other industries; for example, in Guanajuato, the leather-footwear cluster which is one of the most important globally (Escalante and Catalán, 2011; Peña, 2015; INEGI 2017a, b), contributed more than 4% of national GDP in 2017. In 2012, in the state of Tamaulipas, one of the most important clusters was the petrochemical sector, representing almost 5% of the state GDP. Similarly, in 2008–2009, another important cluster of the State was the auto-parts one, which contributed 5.7% of the State GDP and represented 6.8% of the jobs in the sector at national level (Jiménez-Almaguer et al. 2013). At Nuevo Leon, the State government found several expanding clusters and promoted them, including them in the State development plan, offering institutional support and promoting linkages with universities and research centres. This led to the development of key clusters, including agro-industrial, automotive, appliance, electronics, construction-products, and chemicals. Similar successful clusters have been developed in the states of Queretaro and Chihuahua. In Queretaro, the key clusters include agro-industrial, automotive, household-appliances, machinery and equipment, business support services, wood, construction, and chemical products. In Chihuahua, the agribusiness cluster has great economic importance at national level and is one of the first Mexican clusters, integrated by an enterprise chain of livestock feed, breeding, milk production, and genetic engineering. Other clusters are automotive, aerospace, production of harnesses for aircraft and helicopters, turbines, airframes, and emergency slides. Government support in developing a cluster policy for these industries has been important for their success (Hernández and Montalvo 2012; ITESM 2015).

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the promotion of aquaculture clusters by policymakers and stakeholders—as a governance tool—is needed to further develop the aquaculture sector. This could be possible focusing on the objective of the identification, analysis, and classification of clusters regarding the potential to develop the aquaculture sector in some physiographic Veracruz regions, using three theories identifying their conglomeration, interaction, and competitive advantage. This classification can provide decision makers the need and therefore the justification for clustering.

Materials and methods

The state of Veracruz is located on the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico with an area of 78,815 square kilometres, representing 3.7% of the country’s surface and about 7.3 million inhabitants; extreme geographical coordinates: to the north 22° 28′, to the south 17° 09′ north latitude; to the east 93° 36′, to the west 98° 39′ west longitude. The coastline is 745 km long. Altitude: from 0 to 5610 m, going from sea level to the Pico de Orizaba volcano (Citlaltepetl) (GEV 2022a, 2022b.)

Cluster conglomeration; competitive advantage; and function and type of cluster were obtained from data of 578 fish farmers from the Veracruz Census by Reta-Mendiola and Asiain-Hoyos (2010) in 154 municipalities of 7 physiographic zones of the state of Veracruz: Totonaca, Nautla, Capital, Sotavento, Montanas, Papaloapan, and Los Tuxtlas (INEGI 2017a, b). The information was processed in Microsoft Office Excel 2013 using descriptive statistics to present the more representative species of the aquaculture sector studied in Veracruz; and the percentage of the farms by physiographic zones.

Three theories were used, based on the identification, analysis, classification, and description of clusters. In this study, we focus on tilapia farmers from the study areas (see Fig. 1) using the following theories:

  • Localisation and economic geography developed by North (1955) and Krugman (1995). This theory refers to geographical concentration, interconnections, and interdependencies, verified by mapping of production units. This consisted in took the almost 600 hundred georeferenced data from the tilapia fish farmers on 7 of the 10 physiographic areas of the state of Veracruz of the Veracruz Aquaculture Census and with the help of the geomatic lab of the Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Veracruz, map them and observe the relation between the farm’s location and the cornerstones elements of the competitive advantage.

  • The value system of Porter, VSP (1998) of the tilapia cluster identified and described the competitive advantage from the value functions of support activities: firm infrastructure, educational level, technological development, financial support, and market information; and primary activities: suppliers, supports, core companies, horizontal links, distribution channels, and consumers. This process was realised with the inputs of the Veracruz Aquaculture Census by Reta-Mendiola and Asiain-Hoyos (2010); Information of grey literature of Ministries and government sites of Mexico; a literature review and first author knowledge of the area.

  • Cluster type: three cluster types “survival clusters of micro and small-scale enterprises,” “more advanced and differentiated mass producers,” and “clusters of transnational corporations” are defined by Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer (1999) in order to group producers. This classification could be possible with the same inputs mentioned in the VSP theory.

Fig. 1
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Geographic conglomeration of fish farms in the central part of Veracruz State

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Results and discussion

North and Krugman localisation theory and economic geography

Natural resource relationship

Figure 1 shows the georeferenced points for the tilapia farms in the state of Veracruz. The farms are generally situated close together. In addition, the highest density of farms is located in the coastal zones of the Capital and Sotavento Regions.

The visualisation of water bodies and urban areas (markets), through a hydrological map (obtained in CONABIO 2017) of the state of Veracruz, shows the relationship between natural resources and potential markets.

In Fig. 2, it can be observed that in general the farm conglomeration is closer to the water bodies used for cultivation and to the metropolitan areas of Veracruz-Boca del Rio and Cordoba-Orizaba. The location of farms was dependent on water bodies, as the producers were established as a function of the proximity of the natural resource. Furthermore, farmers and other interested people decided to enter the aquaculture industry and farm tilapia for the same reasons, including the proximity to urban markets based on the transfer time, which is dependent on infrastructure quality and its maintenance.

Fig. 2
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Hydrography of the state of Veracruz and main markets

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Tilapia farms represent almost two-thirds, trout farms more than a fifth and other species (i.e., shrimp, oyster, and prawns) as reported by the State census (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3
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Source: Aquaculture Census, 2010

Fish farms of the Veracruz State.

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Main market relationship

The main purchasing markets in Veracruz State for aquaculture products, representing almost 50% of the total market are Xalapa 11.57%, Ciudad Cardel, municipality of La Antigua 7.65%; Cuitlahuac 6.47%, Cordoba 6.08%, Veracruz 5.69%, Xico 5.29%, and Orizaba 4.51%. Of these markets, the 3rd, 4th, and 7th belong to the Montanas area (Cuitlahuac, Cordoba, and Orizaba); the 1st and the 6th to the Capital (Xalapa and Xico); and the 2nd and 5th to Sotavento (Cardel and Veracruz). In the cities with large sales markets, Xico accounts for 21.18%, Alvarado 8.24%, Veracruz 8.24%, Xalapa 8.24%; finally, Mexico City with 7.06% (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
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Farms concentration by areas of the Veracruz State Aquaculture Census, 2010

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Defined as a purchasing market, the one where small and medium fish farmers and fishers sell their product to a middleman. On the other hand, selling markets are where final customers and consumers assist to purchase their products by a middleman (wholesaler or retailer). Cities where both markets are listed are Xalapa and Veracruz, capital of the State and the most important port of the Gulf of Mexico, respectively. Xalapa is the 3rd largest city and part of the 2nd metropolitan area by population, while Veracruz is the largest city, and metropolitan zone, by population in the State. Cordoba and Orizaba are the 4th largest city and metropolitan zone respectively. Alvarado has high potential for development because it belongs to the greater productive value physiographic zone (Papaloapan) and forms part of the most populated metropolitan area (Veracruz-Boca del Rio). Table 1 product of a secondary analysis shows the number of markets (purchasing/selling) by zone and the relation with production and economic value.

Table 1 Economic importance of the Tilapia production in different zones of Veracruz State
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Clusters by the interdependence between natural resources (water bodies) and tilapia production

The results show a dependence between the distance and time proximity to the water bodies, which is a factor that affects transport costs; in addition to the lack of refrigerated transport (Lango-Reynoso et al. 2017); and the lack of cold-chain facilities (Martínez-Cordero et al. 2021), reducing them significantly or eliminating them altogether. This is a key factor in the State and was present in all the physiographic zones (Fig. 2). According to Hernández-Arzaba et al. (2019), the main important markets are the locals and the ones in the metropolitan areas, both the closer, the better.

Porter value system analysis of the tilapia production chain

Primary and support activities that added value as a result of integrating the collective competitive advantage to the fish farmers, consumers, and traders as system core companies were identified and described. The most production was consumed locally (96%), regionally (3%) and nationally (1%) with value added by processing the product e.g., sold in restaurants, packed fillets, and smoked (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
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The Porter value system of the Veracruz tilapia-farmed cluster

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Support activities

Firm infrastructure

Based on the proximity and availability of the natural resource of water such as easy access and abundance in Veracruz (Fig. 2 with information of the census, ic and Table 2 result of a secondary analysis, rsa), but the lack of comprehensive legislation with the activity and the use of land (Table 3, ic) defined the fish farmers as conducting illegal operations. 96.22% did not meet the requirements (17 in total) of government agencies for aquaculture activity.

Table 2 Main rivers of the state of Veracruz
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Table 3 Fish farmer legal requirement compliance
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Table 3 demonstrates that average compliance with the regulations is only 3.78%. The requirement that is met the most by farmers is the licensing requirement to practise aquaculture (16%). The requirement with the lowest compliance is permission to use the land (0.12%) with the lack of compliance to regulations almost total. As a result, with most aquaculture activity regarded as illegal, the lack of compliance with government policy is one of the main obstacles impacting on the lack of financial assistance.

Electricity supply (Fig. 5), a necessity in intensive and semi-intensive aquaculture, has reported coverage in most of the State farms, which are located in semi-rural, rural, peri urban and suburban areas. The electricity is supplied by a governmental monopoly, which does not homologate or subsidise tariffs with agricultural ones. Farms with at least one vehicle were the minority (Fig. 5), justified by the fact that almost 90% of sales are at the farm gate. However, this inhibits penetration into other markets. Generally, the results show there is a lack of access to financial credit, both from government and private investors. Transportation adds value, as it can optimise logistics, improve product scope, and develop a cold supply chain.

Educational level

Academic institutions with a specialism in aquaculture were identified in Veracruz State. However, specialised labour is insufficient and the existing labour force are poorly paid (and as a consequence were also working in other economic sectors). The educational level for fish farmers on average was low (Fig. 5) ranging from illiteracy to postgraduate education. Less than a fifth (or almost 20%) of the farms received professional training.

Technological development

Aquaculture of tilapia was found to be underdeveloped (Fig. 5) due to low education levels, reliance on expensive imported technologies (and the scarcity of domestic ones) and the lack of government support for SMEs in the sector. Without technology, there is a lack of innovation, competitiveness, and ultimately, profitability. This is a component associated with the human development index (Asiain-Hoyos 2009) and based on the capacity of the state to provide quality education to its population. The impulse for integral development actions (based on participatory research) generates innovation in the short term.

Financial support

While government and state subsidies are both incipient (Fig. 5), they are dependent on the operational rules, requirements, procedures, bureaucracy, and contacts that producers must have. Similarly, there is a lack of willingness to finance aquaculture development from private banks because of the illegal status of current aquaculture operations e.g. the lack of security guarantees, specialised credit provision, production and infrastructure insurances, and the high risk associated with fish farming. It is necessary to develop public policies that provide resources to this sector, justified by market demand and profitability.

Market information

Commercialisation was mainly producer–consumer orientated leading to a product without transformation with an intrinsic added value. In fact, farms that added more value were few and far between, representing better profits and creating unique shopping experiences (Fig. 5), defined as gastronomic and rural-touristic experiences. The rest of commercialisation took part in purchasing/selling markets in populated cities, metropolitan areas, and neighbouring cities of these areas.

Primary activities

Suppliers

More than two-thirds of the farms were found capable of self-supplying fry and more than half had the ability to provide annually, which is detected as a development of specialised suppliers within the production units and their coverage scope. Factor input costs are dominated by feed, which accounts for a 60% cost share of inputs (El-Sayed 2006). Furthermore, the factor input share of electricity is 15%, between them accounting for 75% of total operating costs. Imported technological inputs meant that most of the producers did not have access to these inputs, because they are expensive relative to fish farmers’ incomes (Fig. 5).

Support

The taste, texture, and composition of farmed fish are largely derived from its freshness. In addition to the shopping experience, complying with the cultural component e.g. regional gastronomy, environmental liability by mitigating pressure on marine resources, in the economic axis, participating in the tourist sector; and the rural one and making social inclusion an activity, stimulate the regional economy (Fig. 5).

Horizontal links

Marketing and access to media marketing channels along with the lack of specialised suppliers in feeding and technology, were seen as pending tasks for the Veracruz aquaculture cluster. A horizontal link was observed in the producer-marketer relation, having to adapt to market conditions and to those brought by the marketer. A domestic and successful horizontal link of the industry moved forward when the producer eliminated the middleman and sold their product (adding value) directly to a restaurant or with a live tilapia sale point, ic.

Distribution channels

Three market channels were detected. Firstly, conventional distribution (one or several independent producers, wholesalers, and retailers; this was the most representative, as the sale was mainly carried out on the farm). Secondly, vertical distribution channels (wholesalers and resellers) represented the fishmongers in the urban zone markets. Thirdly, horizontal market systems (a single entity that controls the entire system), although there were few cases where there was a conjunction of fry supply with product transformation as value added (Fig. 5), ic.

Consumers

The customers of cultivated tilapia were mainly local for proximity and price. The rest were intermediaries, who covered the demand of fishmongers and restaurants and the consumers who sought to consume fresh-farmed fish in the farm-restaurant model.

Collective competitive advantage

The main collective comparative advantage was found to be water availability and electricity coverage. This facilitated the sale of live product on the farms, with increased freshness, taste and shopping experience. Furthermore, these and availability of fry with state coverage and abundance local consumers lead to higher sales (Fig. 5). Consumers preferred fresh tilapia grown locally, as this provided the best flavour. Rural-gastro-eco-touristic experiences added value, where the fish were caught and prepared on the farm, providing an alternative experience where rural tourism and regional gastronomy were combined.

Identification of the cluster type using the Altenburg and Mayer-Stamer (1999) model

The mature cluster and the Latin American clusters were based on natural resources. The tilapia cluster was not mature, Veracruz is part of Mexico, a developing country, but was based on the water availability without exporting it, as it is a basic input on which production depended entirely. The export of the product was almost nil and did not achieve economic stabilisation, due to the high costs of imported feed and technology. Although, there is comparative advantage based on natural resource availability, over time there is no improvement in productivity. There was a lack of accumulated technology, slowing the evolution of the cluster, limited to the natural resource availability. The tilapia cluster in Veracruz is not highly competitive. The tilapia cluster was found to be in the first phase of the maturation stages; its basic activities and lack of commercialisation were a function of the natural resources. They are characterised as lack of export and/or product processing, the main inputs of production are imported and the production engineering and design were semi-imported. The tilapia cluster has not proceeded to the second stage, as a result of limited processing and export. Furthermore, it cannot comply with the third stage of the maturation process, as its main inputs are imported. Finally, regarding the fourth phase there is currently no value-added export or replicable technologies in the aquaculture sector of Veracruz. Nor did it fully fit into one of the three (survival, mass production, and transnational) of the Latin American typology, based on the incipient development of the clusters in this region.

However, the tilapia cluster presented differentiation given the value added by the freshness of the product coupled with the fact that Mexico is part of Latin America. The survival cluster, consisting of micro and small businesses (94.8%) is characterised with local consumption (almost 90% at the farm) without standardisation and found in the informality (96.2% non-compliance of the legal requirements), as well as low levels of investment and innovation and a limited projection of medium and long-term development. Finally, the transnational cluster shared the advantage of being close to the consumer, but with the disadvantage that their purchasing power was low. However, the lack of standardisation opened the path to innovation and differentiation strategies, such as live tilapia sale points. Based on the characteristics of the Latin American typology, the state presented by the cluster at the time of the study (and the prospecting development) was classified as a new proposal (Fig. 6). Similarly, the tilapia cluster shared features that are more significant with the survival type, highlighting the local market and the low participation rates, fordista with a common characteristic of low investment in R&D, while the transnational emphasised the low cooperation between companies.

Fig. 6
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Classification proposal of the Veracruz Tilapia cluster. †Own elaboration with data of the Veracruz State Aquaculture Census. Project report. SAGARPA/CONAPESCA/COLPOS (Reta-Mendiola and Asiain-Hoyos 2010). Based on Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer (1999), and Garcia and Marquetti (2005) tabulation

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Fish farmers were grouped by easy access to water, thus eliminating transportation costs i.e. they were not established randomly (North 1955; Krugman 1995), following the trend of economic concentration potential for the aquaculture-industrial development and future distribution chains (World Bank et al. 2007). Global competition is between production systems and value chains rather than management, production and marketing; and includes alliances between actors based on shared knowledge and trust (FAO 2004). The interdependence of suppliers developed a horizontal growth backwards, by production capacity and fry seasonality (Reta-Mendiola and Asiain-Hoyos 2010) and self-supply capable of innovating based on customer requirements (Porter 1998). This cluster’s innovation depends on the producers and the interaction capacity with customers, suppliers, universities, and government (Porter 1998; 2003). The municipality of Cuitlahuac has been involved in successful aquaculture development plans and interaction stimulated by the conglomeration (Bricker et al. 2016) and local infrastructure and markets whose ability to access is based on limited information and lack of infrastructure in rural areas (Ruddle 1993; Brummett et al. 2008), as in the case of Veracruz. The most of sales taking place at farms (Reta-Mendiola and Asiain-Hoyos 2010) because of improved freshness has an intrinsic added value, competitive compared with marine fishery products for reasons of distance and in favour of aquaculture with the side benefit of reducing transport associated carbon emissions (Vermeulen et al. 2012). However, clusters and regional systems of metropolitan innovation are more integrated than peripheral (tilapia), due to access of foreign and local players, depending on the local density and the covered transport network (Malecki et al. 1999).

In the Montanas zone there are three main cities for purchasing that must maintain infrastructure. Business management producers inform marketers the benefits of local tilapia consumption and their contribution to releasing pressure from overexploited fisheries and fostering rural-gastro-eco-touristic shopping experiences in local and regional markets. They are also included in the municipal development plans of Cordoba and Orizaba for aquaculture, which is important given that both municipalities have a high rate of marginalisation in their rural areas. In the Capital, there is a parity of purchasing and selling markets located in Xalapa and the Magic Town of Xico (SECTUR, 2019). The commercialisation in this town is at the farm with added value and presents horizontal growth forward in the transformation of the raw material by the gastronomic via, eliminating the intermediary and increasing profits, in a rural touristic shopping experience.

In Xalapa, consumers buy in markets such as La Rotonda, which specialise in local and regional seafood from aquaculture and fisheries. It is recommended that municipalities in the area be certified as “magic towns,” part of the government programme in Mexico to increase tourism (GEV 2019) and provide access to federal subsidies. This would help to propagate clusters of rural tourism where aquaculture products make up the value chain (specialised suppliers) for hostels, hotels and restaurants or raw materials in the farm-restaurant model (industrial interdependence). Markets (customers) with the opportunity to channel themselves into the store service (competition) as marketers or packers are adding value. The Papaloapan Cluster, the largest producer by value in the study area in the state of Veracruz, is worth more than USD 5 million. However, selling is on farm only, which is becoming stagnant due to the little and neglected infrastructure without stimulus for innovation (Doloreux et al. 2009) or the ability to change productivity without contributing to the development of related companies (Asheim et al. 2006). To get to the urban centres, the distance is not the problem; it is the transfer time due to poor infrastructure e.g. roads.

In this paper, we attempted to classify the aquaculture cluster in the mature phase, but it was only possible to describe their phase based at the moment of the study which led to a new classification proposal. The analysis of the tilapia cluster was undertaken at the sectoral-meso level and sought intra and interdependent links, and the strategic competitive advantages (Roelandt and Den Hertog 1997).

Summary

Veracruz aquaculture clusters are not competitive because of natural resources access and cheap labour (Porter 1998). Countries like Mexico must develop local specialised suppliers and technology to substitute the imports that make production expensive. For example, feed cost can account for as much as 40–50% of total operating costs (El-Sayed 2006) and as much as 60–70% (dependent on exchange rates). In addition, all machinery is imported (for example, aerators, pumps, electricity generators).

The Porter value system of the tilapia cluster in Veracruz found its cornerstone in proximity and water availability and electricity supply coverage. However, the legal water access framework does not support aquaculture development, along with the public monopoly supplier of energy protectionism with excessive vertical integration, inhibits innovation and slows the development of the cluster (Porter 1998). It is difficult to find a product of the primary sector with added value, the tilapia grown in Veracruz is one of these, because it is sold fresh, but lacks a shopping experience, which could double the value of the product. It is efficient to develop local specialised suppliers in production logistics, being internal becomes an advantage dependent on controllable factors (different to external factors like climate change). Local consumption represents great value for the economic dynamism at the micro level, promoting investment. It is estimated that the state of Veracruz consumes 10,000 tons of tilapia each year.

The Altenburg and Meyer-Stamer (1999) classification of clusters is based primarily on natural resources that evolve through access to more and better markets through standardisation and value. The Veracruz tilapia cluster has failed to go beyond that boundary, resulting from the lack of interest in creating a public policy of promotion by policy makers that includes academics and the investment in education and training (Doloreux et al. 2009). This means the activity lacks competitiveness and innovation and does not accumulate knowledge in order to benefit the aquaculture regions of Veracruz. Mexico’s competitiveness tool for addressing globalisation (Brenes 2001) based on regional externalities (glocal) and public policies in the productive sectors are important (Mojica-Satoque et al. 2010) assessments of the aquaculture sector in the country (FAO 2006). To become an opportunity, and overcome the challenges presented in Veracruz aquaculture, stakeholders in the production chain must adopt aquaculture practice beyond a small-scale activity, such as a system that goes from inputs to the final consumer (IFAD 2021; Mbow et al. 2019). Development and implementation of public policies and cluster governances have advantages in sectoral employment growth (Delgado et al. 2014), technology development, patents and innovations (Porter 1998; Asheim et al. 2006; Doloreux et al. 2009); the production forecast (Marques et al. 2016); the best management practices benchmarking (NACA 2009); bargaining power on prices of sale (Poot-Lopez et al. 2014), belonging to a group (Porter 2000; Bada and Rivas 2010); a more comprehensive development in the social, political, and cultural dimensions (Albuquerque 2006) and expansion of the sector (Asiain-Hoyos 2009).

Conclusion

The development of aquaculture clusters in Veracruz should be based on regional externalities that generate value and global competitiveness from a glocal level. Consolidating a domestic market by store service penetration and local consumption promotion can be the cornerstone to diversify and create the productive capacity to export to global markets in the long term. Aquaculture promotion, based on cluster public policies, will increase the fish farmers’ income, creating economies of scale and influencing social indicators at local and regional levels. Aquaculture in Veracruz must be promoted as a state strategy with national impact, focussing on unemployment, the scarcity of accessible and quality animal protein and by substituting imports. Specifically, it should promote public policies via clusters strategies, subsidies without clientelism, improve the legal framework and offer accessible credit for aquaculture development. The aquaculture sector in Mexico has an average growth rate of 10% per year, which is much higher than hydrocarbons, remittances, and tourism industries. It is essential that decision makers implement governance plans to promote clusters in at least five of the seven major physiographic zones where the data were collected; these are Capital, Sotavento, Mountains, Papaloapan, and Los Tuxtlas.

Although the competitive advantage obtained is related to differentiating characteristics of the product (fresh tilapia), there is still the possibility of carrying out research and development projects that affect the efficient use of production factors. It is desirable that this type of project be strategically designed from the government sector, in such a way that it can count on financial, technical, and human resources, generating greater human capital, technical, and productive capacities. The findings would allow the configuration of social marketing strategies and campaigns aimed at promoting and valuing the products generated by the studied aquaculture area.