Christian Molinari

Christian Molinari

Contributing Editor

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
November 9, 2022

Chile’s Council for the Defense of the State (CDE) has filed a suit against Punta Arenas-based salmon farmer Nova Austral, seeking compensation for environmental damage allegedly caused in the Alberto de Agostini National Park, located in the fjords of the Magallanes Region in the far south of the country.

According to the CDE, the irreversible damage stems from overproduction at Nova Austral’s aquaculture centers Cockburn 14,

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Published on
November 7, 2022

Peru is expected to surpass USD 2 billion (EUR 2 billion) this year in earnings from exports of fishmeal and fish oil, compared to USD 2.3 billion (EUR 2.3 billion) in 2021 – which was up 60 percent from 2020.

The earnings total was first reported by Peruvian government news service Andina, citing figures from Peru’s National Fisheries Society (SNP).

“There is a growing demand for feed, mainly for poultry farming,

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Published on
November 4, 2022

Chilean Salmon Council Executive Director Joanna Davidovich will step down from her position and join the council's board as an independent member as of 1 December, the organization announced on 4 November, 2022.

Davidovich was named the council's executive director in 2020, upon the creation of the council, which represents AquaChile, Australis, Cermaq, Mowi, and Salmones Aysén, which together account for over half of

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Published on
November 2, 2022

U.S.-based animal nutrition company Cargill and its Ecuadorian partner, shrimp farmer Naturisa, have agreed to form a joint venture (JV) with Ecuador’s Skyvest EC Holding that is expected to lead to a doubling of shrimp feed capacity for the American company in the Latin American country.

Under the agreement, Cargill will look to expand its shrimp-feed production capabilities by owning and operating a 156,000 metric ton (MT) capacity

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Published on
November 1, 2022

Chile’s salmon farming industry used 238 metric tons (MT) of antimicrobials to treat its fish during the first half of 2022, over 98 percent of which was used in seawater salmonid grow-out centers, according to the latest antimicrobial use report from Sernapesca, Chile's aquaculture authority.

While the report did not provide comparable figures from the same period of last year, according to the Chilean Salmon Council, levels were

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Published on
October 31, 2022

Santiago, Chile-based Salmones Camanchaca is aiming to hit a feed-conversion ratio of 0.6 across its entire salmon-farming operations by 2030, the company's CEO, Ricardo García, said at the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil (IFFO) conference in Lima, Peru on 26 October, 2022.

“Over the last 15 years, we’ve seen a conversion factor that has come down from over 1.6 to 1.7 to very close to 1 today,” he said during

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Published on
October 27, 2022

Ecuador’s push to implement technology to drive efficiency while focusing on sustainable production may lead it to take the top spot in the global shrimp market as soon as this year, according to Allan Cooper, director of business and value creation at Lima, Peru-based aquafeed company Vitapro.

Speaking at the annual IFFO - The Marine Ingredients Organization Conference in Lima on 26 October, Cooper said Ecuador's wild shrimp catch

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Published on
October 26, 2022

Salmon and trout exports from Chile reached USD 4.77 million (EUR 4.83 million) during the first three quarters of the year, surging 31 percent compared to the same nine months of 2021, according to the Chilean Salmon Council’s Quarterly Report on Salmon Exports.

For the third quarter alone, Chile’s exports of salmon and trout hit USD 1.54 billion (EUR 1.56 billion), up 31 percent compared to the same quarter of 2021. The

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Published on
October 25, 2022

Traceability in the fishing value chain is an absolute necessity not only when it comes to compliance, responsible practices, and guaranteeing integrity and sustainability, but also in meeting market expectations and driving ethical sourcing while reducing the risk of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, according to participants in the workshop sponsored by MarinTrust, the global marine ingredient standard for responsible

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Published on
October 20, 2022

The Ecuadorian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Ecuador’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA) have signed an agreement that looks to halt the conversion of natural habitat to accommodate shrimp farming in the country.

The agreement marks the first national commitment for conversion-free aquaculture from any country in the world, according to the two entities. Under this arrangement, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based

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