Christian Molinari

Christian Molinari

Contributing Editor reporting from Santiago, Chile

A native of San Francisco, Christian Molinari has lived and worked in Chile for over 20 years, after having arrived in Santiago as a volunteer and falling in love with the culture and its people. He covered business news in Latin America for over a decade, worked in communications at IBM Chile, and currently freelances in strategic communications and reporting.


Author Archive

Published on
September 5, 2025

A new fisheries law was recently submitted to Chilean Congress to reassign industrial fishing quotas, but advances on establishing a dedicated aquaculture law in the country have slowed, cooling momentum built up over the past few years.

Currently, aquaculture activity in Chile is regulated under the nation’s general fishing law, but due to the size of the Chilean aquaculture industry and its significant differences with the fishing

Read More
Published on
September 3, 2025
Puerto Montt, Chile-based salmon-farming firm Ventisqueros has incorporated the use of certified biofuel in its salmon export shipments in collaboration with international transportation services firm Andes Integración Logística and shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. The move is expected… Read More
Published on
September 3, 2025

Chilean industrial fishing and salmon-farming firms closed the first half of the year positively as several companies in the South American country focused on streamlining operations in the period.

Chilean fishing and salmon-farming company Blumar’s net income came in at USD 30 million (EUR 25.6 million) during the first half of the year, surging 442 percent when compared to the USD 5.5 million (EUR 4.7 million) it posted for the first six

Read More
Published on
September 2, 2025

Brazil’s largest beef and poultry firm, JBS, and Japanese seafood company Nissui are searching for opportunities to invest in the Chilean salmon-farming industry.

JBS has held talks with salmon-farming firms Ventisqueros and Australis in the past, but no deals have arisen yet, while Nissui has evaluated purchasing the assets of Yadrán, local paper Diario Financiero reported.

JBS, which is also Brazil’s second-largest pork

Read More
Published on
August 28, 2025

Chile’s environmental supervisory authority, SMA, has ruled that the Chilean branch of Cooke Aquaculture must partially close two of its salmon-farming centers and has levied fines on the firm totaling CLP 1.38 billion (USD 1.42 million, EUR 1.22 million) for what it has determined were environmental crimes committed by the company.

In its 266-page, 22 August ruling, the SMA outlined nine charges and their resulting sanctions. These

Read More
Published on
August 25, 2025

Chilean fishing and salmon-farming company Blumar announced that it will file legal action against the Chilean government over its newly enacted fishing law.

Chile’s Senate voted a new fishing quota bill into law in June to replace the nation’s previous fishing law, enacted in 2013 and originally set to last until 2032. 

President Gabriel Boric said he considered the previous law to be “illegitimate and illegal” and

Read More
Published on
August 22, 2025

Argentinian environmental NGO Circulo de Políticas Ambientales (CPA) has put forth evidence it claims proves fishing vessels which have engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities are being increasingly serviced at Chilean ports.

Using data from Global Fishing Watch and IUU data firm Skylight, the NGO said the number of vessels serviced during the first half of the year in Chile, which have allegedly engaged

Read More
Published on
August 21, 2025

Uruguay’s National Union of Sea Workers and Related Workers (SUNTMA) has decided to call off a strike that began in early June and which has generated losses to industrial fishing companies estimated at around USD 50 million (EUR 42.9 million).

The standoff concluded in a tense atmosphere between unionized workers, some of whom expressed the need to get back to work. One such worker apparently threatened union leaders shortly before the

Read More
Published on
August 14, 2025

Ecuadorian shrimp producers, who previously enjoyed no tariffs when shipping to the U.S., are now set to pay USD 20 million (EUR 17.1 million) per month due to the 15 percent tariff recently introduced by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Ecuador’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA).

As part of Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) sales contract frameworks, under which many Ecuadorian shrimp deals with the U.S. are

Read More
Published on
August 13, 2025
Santiago, Chile-headquartered pulp and paper company CMPC has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to launch “The Salmon Packaging Design Competition” in an attempt to spur sustainable packaging innovations for the salmon industry. The goal of the initiative… Read More