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 Chilean 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.
SeafoodSource: What is needed to level the playing field to be able to compete against other countries such as Norway?
Seguel: A new aquaculture law is key because our industry is currently part of the general fisheries and aquaculture law. In other words, the second most relevant industry in Chile is attached to the fishing industry. We are very different, we have different challenges, and we have very different forms of production.
There is an urgent need for a new, flexible, modern, innovative law that places development and growth as a priority. From there, we can get into issues of territorial planning and sustainability issues.
The law also has to be adapted to this digital, technological era.
Three decades ago, the concessions that were granted did not have even 5 percent of the information we have today regarding things like data on seabed health and weather. We no longer have wooden pens, and fish are no longer fed by hand; they are fed remotely with AI and monitored by cameras. Regulations from 30 years ago are now totally obsolete, and that cannot continue to be the standard.
SeafoodSource: Speaking of the new aquaculture law, how has the progress been so far? What has been the contribution of the council? What is your vision?
Seguel: Although the state and the authorities have stated that this is an important industry and they want to have dialogue and participation, we have lacked concrete actions and advances.
They say that there is citizen participation and online platforms are set up, but when you look at the platform, you’d need a postgraduate degree just to be able to figure it out. In the south of Chile, many times there is no connectivity, and some people don't have the capacity or the knowledge to be able to fill out a platform like this. One wonders how this participation platform was put together.
Things fail in Chile because of how they are implemented, and there are thousands of public policy examples that began as a very good idea, but in the end, it ends up being a very bad one. We cannot accept that poor implementation for the aquaculture law.
SeafoodSource: How has the council responded?
Seguel: We have been setting out our strategic axes in detail because the nation can be very fragile. Chile does not have many services, and some ministries depend on others, where procedures can start in one ministry but end in another.
The council's work is one step ahead, identifying how change should be carried out, what decree we should have, in which institution the change should be generated, what resolution needs to be changed, etc. In that way, we’re not only saying what needs to be done, but we also help inform the authorities – current or future ones – on how it can be done better.
