Stakeholders within Chile’s salmon-farming industry have called on the nation’s government to more clearly define its stance on the future of the aquaculture sector, which is responsible for exports of more than USD 6.4 billion (EUR 6.1 billion) annually.
“We need a countrywide vision. What does the country want? Salmon farming to be an economic pillar, like it is in Norway, or have it disappear as some NGOs want?” Blumar CEO Gerardo Balbontin said during the “Conversations for economic development” series of discussions recently hosted by business consultancy firm Deloitte.
The current lack of a unified plan for aquaculture in Chile, he said, has led to complications, especially as there is an overlap of interests between the Indigenous population, conservationists, the salmon-farming industry, and artisanal fishers in the country over the use of the nation’s waters.
One of the main problems, according to Marcos Singer, the director of Universidad Católica de Chile’s MBA program, is that many people in Chile don’t even know how important the sector is to the nation – despite the fact that the salmon sector provides jobs to more than 80,000 people, salmon is the country’s second-largest export product after mining, and salmon farming is a significant contributor to regional GDP.
In a survey held by polling agency Cadem, aquaculture came in last place of the general public’s view of relevant industries, chosen by just 5 percent of the public and coming in behind mining (chosen by 67 percent of those polled), agriculture (29 percent), energy (24 percent), services (22 percent), IT (14 percent), forestry (9 percent), banking (7 percent), and fishing (6 percent).
Over half of the public surveyed did not know that Chile is the second-largest producer of farmed salmon in the world …
