Mortality rates in Chile’s farmed salmon industry are lower now than they were prior to the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) outbreak taking hold in 2008 and 2009.
In an interview this week with Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, José Gago, VP of industry organization SalmonChile, said mortality rates are currently averaging less than 10 percent, compared to 40 percent to 50 percent at the height of the outbreak and 20 percent to 25 percent prior to the outbreak.
“Isolated” ISA outbreaks will still occur, acknowledged Gago, but Chile’s farmed salmon industry is clearly on the road to recovery. “Today, we are definitely much better. No doubt,” he told the newspaper.
Gago said the industry will require about USD 750 million of working capital and an additional USD 150 million investment in machinery to fully recover, which is lower than previous estimates of USD 1 billion.
He added that the industry has implemented 44 health measures to prevent the outbreak from reoccurring.
Chile’s highly publicized ISA outbreak has hampered the global salmon supply, driving up prices significantly, even though Norway has ramped up its production to compensate for Chile.
On Wednesday, the U.S. government reported that U.S. imports of fresh and frozen salmon fillets from Chile amounted to just 41 million pounds in the first three quarters of 2010, less than half of last year’s nine-month total. Overall, U.S. Atlantic salmon imports are down 9.5 percent to less than 294 million pounds.
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