The Chilean Salmon Council was established in 2020, joining two other salmon associations – SalmonChile and the Magallanes Salmon Farmers Association – in representing the interests of Chile’s second-largest export industry.
The council’s members – AquaChile, Australis, Cermaq, Mowi, and Salmones Aysén – collectively represent more than half of salmon production in Chile.
SeafoodSource spoke with Salmon Council Executive Director Loreto Seguel on why it was necessary to form this particular association and how its mission and vision help to distinguish it from similar groups.
SeafoodSource: Why do you feel there was a need to establish the Salmon Council in 2020, considering there were already at least two other associations?
Seguel: There is always a challenge when there is more than one association; the differentiating value proposition always has to be clear.
The Salmon Council’s role and purpose is very clear because we are solely salmon producers. The other best-known association is SalmonChile, where the salmon ecosystem there is vertically integrated; it has different partners that are part of the production chain – from logistics, to food, to vaccines – and that vertical integration effectively generates possible conflicts of interest.
At the Council, we as producers have to be able to develop the industry, project it, and we are horizontally integrated. We represent more than 50 percent of the salmon production in Chile, and our sole focus is to produce and export salmon, which allows us to quickly meet a public policy objective. I think it also allows us to make easier decisions; we are an agile trade association with a foot in the public and political arena. The partners agree quickly, and we can advance.
We started with AquaChile, Mowi, and Salmones Aysen, and then Cermaq and Australis joined. There is a diversity of capital – Norwegian, Chilean, Japanese – as well as a diversity of production types and company size.
We have the top salmon farmer in Chile (AquaChile) and the top one in the world (Mowi), as well as a smaller company like Salmones Aysen. Even Aysen has a particularity that it only produces coho, and this is also a very important identity because I would say that coho has a strong Chilean identity; 90 percent of the world's coho is produced in Chile.
SeafoodSource: One of your member companies is Australis, which has been heavily criticized for its actions in the past. Do you feel that this tarnishes the image of the council?
Seguel: Australis is a partner of ours, whose general manager raised his hand as soon as he arrived and announced that things were being done badly and could not continue. That's what we value.
What was done in terms of overproduction is unacceptable, reprehensible, and condemnable. For us, we require strict compliance with the regulations for the entire industry and especially for the five partners we represent. It's easier not to say anything and to sweep the problem under the rug because if you speak, people ostracize you. Australis CEO Andrés Lyon took the right path, and that is why, as a council, we have supported him.
Undoubtedly, there are other repercussions. Today, Australis is a company that is complicated financially and with environmental authorities. It has a series of considerations that are also complicated for us because it generates externalities.
What we have done as an association is to always insist on basic principles: to do the job well, to comply with regulations, and to help Lyon with everything in our power for him to continue what he has done so far. But, it is a complex situation. It is a very large company, and we have seen how there are others that were on the verge of collapse. That creates drama for workers, for certain localities that heavily depend on these industries, and also for the entire system of suppliers.
Helping Australis means that we are also trying to support the entire ecosystem so that it suffers as little as possible.
Today, Chile cannot afford the luxury of allowing companies to close. We have to understand that companies are engines of growth, employment, and moving that entrepreneurial ecosystem. Bills and services need to be paid, and we have to be able to improve it and work on it.
SeafoodSource: What would you say is the Salmon Council’s purpose, and how does it differ from other groups?
Seguel: We have worked on our purpose …
