Christian Molinari

Chile’s Salmon Council has released a study outlining a limited set of regulatory and operational adjustments that the country's aquaculture sector and government could implement to generate production increases of between 4 percent and 8 percent. The study aimed to estimate the economic effects of such growth on exports, employment, and regional gross domestic product (GDP), including both direct impacts and knock-on effects on associated… Read More

Amid rapid export growth, Ecuador is turning its focus toward increasingly adding value to the shrimp products it sends abroad, according to Global Shrimp Council Co-Founder and Gluna Shrimp CEO Gabriel Luna. Ecuador’s National Aquaculture Chamber (CNA) recently announced the country exported 165,538 metric tons (MT) of shrimp in May, marking an increase of 9 percent year over year and representing the highest export total for a single month… Read More

Chilean business representatives, including delegates from the nation’s salmon-farming sector, are preparing to travel to the U.S. to make the case that Chilean products should not be tariffed at the 12.5 percent rate recently set by the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court found President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his tariff… Read More

A Santiago, Chile-based appeals court has annulled a previous ruling from a Chilean arbitration tribunal that ordered Isidoro Quiroga, the previous owner of salmon-farming company Australis, and members of his family to pay USD 292 million (EUR 256 million) to Chinese seafood firm Joyvio, which currently owns the firm. Last year, after more than two years of trial, the Santiago Chamber of Commerce ruled that Quiroga had overpriced Australis when… Read More

The Chilean branch of aquaculture technology company AKVA group is working to bring its deep-farming technology to Chile to help salmon farmers in the country address sea lice issues. AKVA’s deep-farming methodology moves fish about 30 meters below the surface – beyond the depth at which caligus, a genus of parasitic sea lice that dwells mostly near the ocean surface, thrive. The cage on the surface has 30-meter cables that connect down to a… Read More

Chinese corporations now control 63.1 percent of Argentina’s squid fleet, while actual Argentine capital accounts for just 17.9 percent of ownership, according to Milko Schvartzman, the ocean policy coordinator at Argentina-based environmental NGO Circulo de Politicas Ambientales. Schvartzman’s recently released report, titled “China and the Control of Fishing Within Argentina’s EEZ,” investigates the transfer of power within… Read More

Bills currently under review in Chile and Peru may put the world’s largest cephalopod fishery, the jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) fishery, at risk, according to companies participating in a recent sustainability roundtable event. Companies participating in the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s (SFP) Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable (SR) emphasized in a release that a proposed Chilean bill being considered would permit the… Read More

The Legal Ocean Watch (LOW) initiative, led by Chilean environmental NGO ONG Fima, is gaining momentum in the battle against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Latin America. LOW is a regional project that holds international seminars and publishes reports focused on combating IUU fishing in Latin America. The initiative has partners such as Global Fishing Watch to empower civil society to use satellite technology, including… Read More

A scuba diver identified as Víctor Guerrero died recently in an accident while working at the Serrano farming center in the Aysén region of Southern Chile, which belongs to salmon-farming firm AquaChile. After the incident, Chile’s Public Prosecutor's Office instructed the national police force, Carabineros, to perform preliminary investigative proceedings. At the same time, the nation’s maritime authority requisitioned the diving… Read More

Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE) has once again suspended the fishing season for Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) and white anchovy (Anchoa nasus) in the nation’s main fishing area. Officials first announced a ban on anchovy fishing in Peru’s North-Central zone in May and then extended it until 10 June before recently announcing yet another extension. While PRODUCE did not announce a definitive date as to when the latest suspension… Read More