Christian Molinari

Chile's salmon industry registered exports of USD 6.55 billion (EUR 5.63 billion) in 2025 – a 3 percent increase from 2024, according to SalmonChile's Quarterly Export Bulletin, which referenced information from the country’s Central Bank. The bulletin stated that the sector accounted for 6 percent of Chile’s total exports and salmonids were the country’s second-most exported product behind copper. Additionally, it found that four… Read More

The court of appeals in Chile’s southernmost city of Punta Arenas has ruled to fully acquit Nicos Nicolaides, the former CEO of salmon-farming firm Nova Austral, of all charges levied against him for supposed crimes committed when he worked at the firm. The move reversed a criminal conviction issued in July 2025 in which Nicolaides and other former Nova Austral executives were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay fines for alleged… Read More

Chile’s Supreme Court has ratified a sanction against Mowi Chile for the 2018 escape of more than 600,000 salmon from the company’s Punta Redonda farming center in the southern Los Lagos region. The fine – equivalent to CLP 7.44 billion (USD 8.2 million, EUR 7 million) – was originally levied against Mowi by Chile’s environmental authority body, the SMA, in 2020 for what the authority deemed as “irreparable environmental damage,”… Read More

Chilean salmon and trout farmer Salmones Antártica has submitted a proposal to Chile’s Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA) for a USD 6 million (EUR 5.1 million) expansion of its salmon processing plant located in Chonchi, on the island of Chiloé in the south of the country. The company’s plan is to increase production to 51,400 metric tons (MT) per year of finished product from the current 30,000 MT a year, for which Salmones… Read More

Lawmakers in Argentina’s southernmost province of Tierra del Fuego have voted by a narrow majority to authorize salmon production off the province’s Atlantic coast. Provincial legislators voted 8 to 7 recently to amend an existing law (Law 1,355) that the local government in Tierra del Fuego unanimously approved in 2021 to prohibit salmon farming. At the time of the law’s passing, it was widely celebrated by environmentalists and other… Read More

Chile’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA) has signed a collaboration agreement with Stanford University’s Regulation, Evaluation, and Governance Lab (RegLab) to strengthen preventive monitoring, oversight, and evaluation of environmental public policies through data-based solutions. The three-year, renewable collaboration agreement will focus on two areas: forming an aquaculture strategy and supporting management of grievances, the… Read More

The Ecuadorian Ministry of the Interior has announced new controls on sodium metabisulfite to prevent its use in illicit activities. When legitimately used, such as in shrimp-farming operations, sodium metabisulfite serves as a versatile preservative, antioxidant, and reducing agent to prevent food decomposition; however, it can also serve as a raw material for refining cocaine. The new controls from the Ecuadorian government would require… Read More

Japanese seafood firm Nissui has announced that it will fully acquire all shares of Chilean salmon-farming firm Pesquera Yadrán via its subsidiary Salmones Antartica in a USD 133 million (EUR 113 million) deal that is expected to close in January 2026. The move will make Pesquera Yadrán, including its six subsidiaries, wholly owned by Nissui, according to a 16 December filing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. “To realize the company’s long-term… Read More

On 14 December, Chileans elected José Antonio Kast of the far-right Partido Republicano de Chile as their next president in a runoff election. Kast ran on a platform largely focused on combating crime and closing Chile’s borders to illegal immigration but has also signaled his intention to deregulate the nation’s aquaculture sector. The Chilean presidential candidates, who also included Jeanette Jara of the Communist Party, and Evelyn… Read More

In its recently published 2024 Sustainability Report, Chilean salmon-farming firm Nova Austral claims it has become the only aquaculture company in the country producing salmon without the use of antibiotics. The latest sustainability report is the fifth of its kind and aims to document the company’s environmental and compliance evolution following its internal restructuring in 2019. “Thanks to our team’s performance, we continue to be the… Read More