Chile’s government struck an agreement with two salmon-farming firms to relocate their concessions outside of national parks, but according to environmental NGO Fundación Terram, the two firms should have some of those concessions wholly revoked for exceeding allotted production capacity for years.
AquaChile and Cooke Aquaculture signed an agreement with the Chilean government in December 2023 to relocate a total of nine aquaculture concessions, effectively relocating their operations from three national parks – Isla Magdalena, Laguna San Rafael, and Bernardo O’Higgins.
Chile Minister of Economy, Development, and Tourism Nicolás Grau said that the agreement would help to define a clear path for salmon farming to move to other, non-protected areas.
“This allows us to advance in the fulfillment of one of the most relevant commitments of the President of the Republic in this matter that calls for a path to follow – a path of dialogue and of public-private articulation – which, on one hand, allows us to continue strengthening a very relevant economic sector … and on the other hand to protect the environment and, thus, define a balanced and sustainable development of this industry,” he said at the time.
“This agreement is a demonstration that we can sit at the same table to work together and agree on common objectives. As a country, we need the industry to take decisive steps toward sustainability,” Chile Environment Minister Maisa Rojas added.
Grau and Rojas were two signees of the agreement, along with the CEOs of AquaChile and Cooke Aquaculture Chile and the undersecretaries for the armed forces and for fisheries and aquaculture. The signed commitment stated that “the different state entities will coordinate to respect the acquired rights and development of the activity within the current regulations, while the relocation of the concessions is carried out.”
Separately, in May 2024, Fundación Terram announced in an investigative report that nine Chilean salmon-farming firms had racked up 95 cases of overproduction in the country’s natural reserves from 2012 to 2023, harvesting more than 67,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon above their authorized limits. At the time of the report’s release, none of the cases mentioned had been sanctioned by Chile’s Superintendence of the Environment (SMA).
Following the report, the SMA initiated a sanctioning procedure against Blumar in May for alleged overproduction at one of its grow-out centers in the Kawésqar National Reserve. After that case, the SMA also filed charges against salmon-farming firm Multi X for overproduction at its Cholga production center, located in the Las Guaitecas National Reserve in the southern Aysén region of the country.
In an opinion piece published on Chilean investigative journalism site Ciper, Fundación Terram member Maximiliano Bazán said AquaChile and Cooke simply relocating concessions is not enough punishment for overproduction.
Bazán questioned whether government authorities had actually looked into the situation of the nine concessions before signing the 2023 agreement, maintaining that five of those concessions had expired and the other four should have their concessions revoked due to repeated violations of environmental laws.
“It is evident that none of the three ministries – economy, environment, and defense – that signed such an agreement stopped to review the legal background of these concessions since, if they had consulted [Chile’s Environmental Assessment Service] before taking the official photo [with the other signees], they would have learned that, for several years, four of the nine farming centers that seek to relocate have been evading environmental institutions, obtaining millions in economic benefits at the expense of the deterioration of the seabed of two national parks,” he said.
Against this backdrop, “the relocations announced by the government could end up legalizing projects that have been operating illegally for years,” he added.
In the case of the four centers, production limits were surpassed by several thousands of tons beyond that originally authorized, according to the NGO.
According to information from the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) obtained by Bazán under Chile’s transparency law, AquaChile’s two centers in question are located in the Isla Magdalena National Park and have an authorized production of 400 MT per year. One of its centers produced 3,100 MT in 2012, 2,796 MT in 2014, 3,429 MT in 2017, 1,080 MT in 2020, and 2,685 MT in 2023, according to Bazán. Similarly, its other center reportedly produced 4,098 MT in 2019, 1,326 MT in 2020, 1,164 MT in 2021, and 3,419 MT in 2023.
Meanwhile, at one of Cooke Aquaculture’s centers, known as “Huillines 2,” in Laguna San Rafael National Park, with authorized yearly production of 375 MT a year, it reportedly produced 2,364 MT in 2007, 520 MT in 2008, 5,241 MT in 2016, 4,640 MT in 2020, 4,033 MT in 2021, and 4,380 MT in 2023. At its center known as “Huillines 3” in the same park, where it has authorized production of 125 MT per year, it reportedly produced 2,447 MT in 2007, 3,789 MT in 2009, 3,263 MT in 2012, 6,649 MT in 2014, 3,673 MT in 2016, 4,988 MT in 2020, 3,350 MT in 2021, and 2,864 MT in 2023.
Of these four cases, only two currently have a sanctioning procedure underway from the SMA: Cooke Aquaculture’s Huillines 2 and Huillines 3 centers, Bazán said.
Fundación Terram estimated that the two Cooke Aquaculture centers harvested 50,993 MT and the two AquaChile centers 19,497 MT of salmon above what is authorized in their respective environmental permits. Based on the 2022 average price for 1 kilogram of salmon at USD 9.79 (EUR 8.80), the NGO estimated that each company realized CLP 450 billion (USD 483 million, EUR 435 million) and CLP 171 billion (USD 184 million, EUR 165 million), respectively, in sales from this overproduction.
Under the existing legislation for serious infractions of environmental laws, the maximum fine that the SMA could levy against each center would be CLP 3.9 billion (USD 4.2 million, EUR 3.8 million) – a small fraction of the revenues obtained. In order for a clear message to be sent to the industry, Bazán insisted the four centers should be shuttered.
“If the current law were enforced, these four farming centers would have to be closed by the SMA, since, otherwise, the authority’s [insignificant] sanction could end up being an incentive to continue circumventing the country's environmental institutionality, thus giving a pernicious signal to the rest of the industry,” he said. “This is why the sanction determined by the SMA with the Cooke Aquaculture centers will be a relevant precedent for the cases that come forward, as well as for the two AquaChile centers … whose history of avoidance continues to accumulate dust in the offices of the SMA, without a sanctioning procedure being initiated so far.”
When contacted by SeafoodSource, AquaChile – Chile’s largest salmon-farming firm by production volume – limited itself to saying it had accepted the authority's proposal to leave the national parks, even though this means lowering its net productive capacity, agreeing to do so because it considered it important to move forward on this issue.
“It is important to note that the concessions were granted by the State of Chile in places that the authority defined as suitable for aquaculture and before these parks were defined,” a company spokesperson said. “AquaChile is making a significant effort to resolve this issue, as highlighted by the ministers of economy and environment last December.”
Cooke Aquaculture did not respond to SeafoodSource’s request for comments.
However, in early 2023, Cooke Aquaculture Chile General Manager Andrés Parodi said in a letter to Environment Minister Rojas that the company felt it was being discriminated against by the SMA for sanctions unrelated to the ones unveiled in the Fundación Terram report.
