The Chilean branch of Norwegian aquaculture technology company AKVA group is advancing on the second phase of a USD 32.5 million (EUR 30 million) land-based smolt facility that salmon-farming firm Cermaq contracted it to build in 2024.
Part of an ambitious USD 100 million project that Cermaq Chile announced in April 2024, the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) smolt facility on Cermaq’s Chacao Canal Fish Farm (PCC) will have a production capacity of 14 million smolts a year, which would make it the company’s largest such facility.
“The PCC is the only [land-based] project we have today in Chile. [It is] a very large fish farm for Cermaq that has 11 culture rooms between incubation, the alevin stage, and the smolt stage,” AKVA Chile General Manager Christian Schäfer told SeafoodSource. “The first culture rooms will probably begin to be delivered in Q3 of this year. It’s a very big project, so we have all our land-based resources in Chile aimed at its execution."
Schäfer explained that AKVA “inherited” the project following the bankruptcy of the Chilean unit of Billund Aquaculture, which was originally developing the project. AKVA group was awarded the contract to complete the project in October 2024.
He said the project comes as the country has a limited development pipeline related to RAS and freshwater innovations.
“I think the legal uncertainty surrounding the industry has slowed down investment in new projects,” Schäfer said. “If you look at the growth curve of the Chilean [salmon] industry, it is stagnant at 1 million metric tons, so there has not been much growth linked to the fact that there are many things that have to be resolved. We have very high expectations that this government [of President José Antonio Kast], which is very proactive with the salmon industry, will be able to get things in order to provide more legal certainty so that large companies can resume the corresponding path of investment growth.”
In addition to Kast’s cooperation with the salmon-farming industry, Schäfer said there are mayors and governors who are very proactive with the industry in the southern regions where salmon farming takes place, while recently appointed Salmon Chile President Patricio Melero is a former politician who is very committed to the industry and moving the right pieces.
“In that sense, I believe that today the salmon industry’s position is unbeatable. Now, we need everyone to agree to advance on concrete issues, such as this concept of relocation or microrelocation,” Schäfer said. “That should create a completely different situation, and I see that the government today has all the will and proactivity to do so, so let's hope that some things will be achieved.”
Schäfer previously told SeafoodSource that AKVA group is working to implement its deep-farming technology across the country, which moves fish about 30 meters below the surface – beyond the depth at which sea lice thrive.
Additionally, the group’s low-emission farming projects, including solar-paneled cages and pontoons, are progressing toward commercial scale in Chile, representing significant business potential, Schäfer said.
