Private companies, academia, civil society organizations, and the municipality of Puerto Montt have joined together to launch the Salmon Route in Chile – an experience bringing together salmon farming with food tourism.
The pilot plan includes 10 outings in its initial stage.
During the first day of the plan, Brazilian and Argentine tourists visited salmon-farming firm AquaChile’s Huenquillahue center, located about 20 kilometers southwest of Puerto Montt, and then boarded a boat for a 15-minute ride to a farming center where about 50,000 Atlantic salmon are raised for export. At the farm, visitors learned about the operations and production processes of salmon aquaculture.
The tour then transfers to Maillen Island off the coast of Puerto Montt for a gastronomic tasting at a local resident’s home, carried out in conjunction with Universidad Santo Tomás. The preparations by chef Frederic Emery include salmon-based ceviche, skewers, and the “cancato” fish dish, combined with local ingredients such as apple chicha, alga and Austromegabalanus psittacus – a giant barnacle known locally as “picoroco” – in a menu that highlights the flavors of Patagonia.
“We are innovating in an unprecedented way for the first time in Puerto Montt and in Chile, I would say,” Puerto Montt Mayor Rodrigo Wainraihgt said in a release. “We are promoting the importance of salmon for our city and also for our country – not only from an industrial point of view but also from a tourist point of view. Today, looking for Puerto Montt to become the capital of tourism in the Los Lagos region, we are promoting that objective with activities like these.”
Salmon Route organizers said they took inspiration from experiences offered by the Wine Route in the central part of Chile.
Puerto Montt is the headquarters of several salmon-farming firms including AquaChile, Multi X, Ventisqueros, Invermar, Caleta Bay, and more. Los Lagos is the primary production hub of salmon farming in the country, hosting over 65 percent of production in the country.
