New growth in the farmed salmon industry is building confidence both in producers and investors, leading to optimism for the salmon industry’s future.
Panelists at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference presented these and other opinions at the conference’s salmon panel held on 28 January.
“We are looking at a good future for both farmed and wild,” said Gianfranco Nattero, who oversees Central and South American operations for Marine Harvest.
Nattero noted that wild salmon landings, especially for sockeyes and pinks, have been fluctuating. Since 2013, sockeye landings have gone up, leading to lower prices overall, while the opposite is true for pinks.
Despite this, Nattero said he doesn’t believe prices will follow such a radical course, if only because demand for salmon in the worldwide market remains high.
“The market has grown,” he said. “There’s room out there for everybody.”
On the farmed side, Gustavo Ross, director of operations-Chile, Pacific Seafood Group, said many critics of aquaculture in Chile are now forced to eat their words. Right now, he said, Chile is producing approximately 600,000 metric tons per year, which he described as a significant increase over previous years.
And, he added, the companies made the increase happen without violating any rules protecting the environment.
“We are reliable, we are following the rules,” he said.
Along with the growth, Ross pointed to the high-profile sale of Cermaq to Mitsubishi as a sign that outside investors are looking to salmon farming as a viable business option once again.
“That’s another sign of trust that we did not have a year ago,” he said.
Ross said the next step is not to improve production, but to somehow boost consumption figures.
“In the market is where we need to focus on the growth of consumption of salmon,” he said.
