SalmonChile office firebombed

SalmonChile's Puerto Montt office was intentionally set ablaze on Monday, destroying much of the property, reported the Patagonia Times.
 
Anger over layoffs reportedly prompted arsonists to target the industry group; farmed salmon producers had fired nearly 7,500 workers by November 2008, according to Chile's National Labor Directorate, and thousands more have been laid off since then. The arsonists have not yet been identified.
 
"This intentional act of vandalism affects the entire industry and its workers," SalmonChile VP Víctor Hugo Puchi told the Times. "This is just unbelievable considering the complex economic situation that's currently affecting the national salmon industry. This unusual act of violence only worsens the industry crisis and hurts our hopes of recovering."
 
News of the fire comes two weeks after SalmonChile announced that it is moving its headquarters from Santiago to Puerto Montt, the country's salmon-farming capital, and that it appointed Odebret Carlos Beyer as CEO, replacing managing director Rodrigo Infante.
 
At the time, the group said it was working to create a network of social support to help unemployed workers.
 
Over the past year-and-a-half, the spread of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in Chile has forced producers to curb output and reduce staff.
 
Last month, Marine Harvest, the world's largest farmed salmon producer, announced that it halved its number of active farmed salmon sites in Chile from 22 to 11 during the first quarter of 2009 and that its first-quarter production dropped from just over 24,000 metric tons in 2008 to just 13,000 metric tons this year.

Also last month, farmed-fish company AquaChile laid off 450 workers at its Puerto Montt-area processing facilities.

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