Chile’s salmon-farming industry executives have been vocal over what they see as the need for the nation’s government to more clearly define its stance on the future of the aquaculture sector and establish a countrywide vision on salmon-farming development.
The government is working on a new aquaculture law, but different actors have failed to see eye to eye on what the law should cover and how it should be implemented.
SeafoodSource spoke with Chile Salmon Council Executive Director Loreto Seguel to see how the situation might play out.
SeafoodSource: As the leader of the council, what is the one issue you would like to see resolved tomorrow?
Seguel: We need a state policy for the country’s second-largest industry. Chile and the Chilean salmon-farming industry require that there be a state policy to continue projecting it. A productive industry, an industry that changed the face of southern Chile, an industry that created wealth from scratch, and that today is second globally [in terms of production] requires a robust state policy to continue developing in a globalized world. It requires a state policy to be able to compete; others won’t do it for you.
We can’t remain with the status quo. There are others who advance, so we automatically go backward. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, one could remain stagnant, but today, unfortunately not, because you are going to go backward.
SeafoodSource: What’s needed to get that state policy? Does it have to do with the aquaculture law, or does it go further than that?
Seguel: I believe we have to bring together the different spheres – political, public, private, and companies themselves. There are many actors, including the NGOs, that we have to get to sit at the table to be able to build and have the conviction that we need to develop and grow in a sustainable way.
Development, sustainable growth: We are on that crusade. We have a duty to all the families in the south of Chile where this industry has changed their lives.
When you take this as a duty, you have an obligation behind it. That obligation is to take charge of projecting the industry and not leave it as we are today: stagnant. Norway has a declaration [for salmon industry development] to 2050, Scotland has the same, Canada is also putting up a fight, Australia, and the Faroe Islands – we have all these competitors, and we can't produce any more salmon.
So, I would say that we are in that crusade of bringing wills together, but it has to be with a political and technical perspective. That’s also the council’s role – to provide that professional technical knowledge and show hard data.
Salmon is a healthy protein, which has the lowest carbon footprint, which has the lowest amount of freshwater use, and which has the best feed conversion factor. That is a hard, technical fact that allows us to show citizens and everyone that it is very relevant, that it is noble, and part of the solution of the future...
