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
April 22, 2022

Shareholders at Multiexport Foods, the majority owner of Chilean salmon farmer Multi X, have approved agricultural giant Cargill’s proposed 24.5 percent purchase of the salmon company.

During an extraordinary shareholders meeting held 18 April, “all of the participating shareholders, which represents 92.23 percent of the issued shares with voting rights, agreed ... to approve the operation with the related party and therefore sign

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Published on
April 18, 2022

Boxmeer, The Netherlands-based animal genetics company Hendrix Genetics has signed a strategic partnership with Peruvian fish roe importer Coraqua for the latter to grow Hendrix’s Troutlodge stocks from egg to mature broodstock in Chichillapi, in Peru’s Puno Region ... 

Photo courtesy of Hendrix

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Published on
April 18, 2022

Puerto Varas, Chile-based salmon-farming firm Australis Seafoods, which in 2020 launched the Southring brand to market its products globally, has signed an agreement with sustainable bioplastic producer BioElements to replace its conventional plastic containers and packaging with biodegradable material.

All of Southring’s fresh salmon fillets will now by exported in plant-based packaging developed specifically for the product, which has

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Published on
April 15, 2022

The amount of farmed salmon that Chile exported during the first quarter of 2022 reached a total similar to its pre-pandemic levels, and is evidence of the sector’s recovery amid soaring global demand, according to Chile’s Salmon Council ... 

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
April 12, 2022

Chile’s constitutional court (TC) has ruled that the presumption of environmental damage from farmed fish escapes is unconstitutional, setting a precedent for the country’s aquaculture sector.

In August 2020, Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) levied a CLP 5.3 billion (USD 6.7 million, EUR 5.7 million) fine against Mowi for an incident involving a large-scale escape of over 690,000 fish from

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Published on
April 4, 2022

Lima, Peru-based aquafeed company Vitapro will invest more than USD 80 million (EUR 72.4 million) this year in its Ecuadorian branch of shrimp feed producer Nicovita, with plans to build a new plant and expand production capacity by 45 percent …

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
April 4, 2022

Chile’s largest salmon farmer, AquaChile, has completed the divestiture of its tilapia operations in Costa Rica, selling its subsidiary Grupo ACI to Costa Rica’s AquaFoods Group for USD 6 million (EUR 5.4 million), AquaChile CEO Sady Delgado reported to Chile’s markets regulator CMF.

“The effect on income from this transaction was a total loss of USD 36.4 million [EUR 33 million],” Delgado said, adding that Costa

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Published on
April 1, 2022

Los Ángeles, Bio Bio, Chile-based Salmones Austral saw revenues jump 39.8 percent to USD 251 million (EUR 227 million) in 2021 on the back of higher volumes sold and a higher average sales price of salmon … 

Photo courtesy of Salmones

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Published on
March 29, 2022

Santiago, Chile-based fishing and salmon-farming firm Blumar saw net profits of USD 19.9 million (EUR 18.1 million) in the fourth quarter of 2021, versus a net loss of USD 7.3 million (EUR 6.6 million) during the same quarter of 2020.

Photo courtesy of

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Published on
March 28, 2022

Increasing sales of plant-based proteins and rising investor attention to cell-cultured seafood – a market which according to market research company Euromonitor is expected to be worth USD 23.2 billion (EUR 21.2 billion) by 2024 – is drawing more Latin American players into the market.

In the alternative seafood market, two countries seem to be taking the lead: Brazil and Chile. The former is undertaking research to accelerate

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