Santiago, Chile-based seafood firm Camanchaca has launched the “Único” brand, targeting the domestic Chilean market.
The company's first offering through the brand, canned horse mackerel, is already available to local wholesalers, distributors and supermarkets, initially in the cities of Santiago and Concepción. The company said in a press release it will look to increase its Único offerings to include frozen salmon and mussels in December.
“We have noticed an increase in the sales of salmon and horse mackerel in the national market, which historically consumed very little. This led us to take a harder look at the market and give it more priority,” Camanchaca General Manager Ricardo García told El Mercurio.
Currently, Camanchaca's domestic sales represent 5 to 7 percent of its revenue, but García said he would like to see that figure increase, without providing a specific target. As part of its new strategy, Camanchaca recently invested USD 30 million (EUR 25.8 million) in the construction of a frozen horse mackerel plant in Coronel, which will open in December 2021.
Earlier in October, shareholders of the company’s salmon-farming subsidiary, Salmones Camanchaca, approved a capital increase of up to USD 30 million (EUR 25.8 million) called for by the company to support its 2021-2023 investment plan, which includes increasing water-renewal and -circulation at its farming centers, implementing a series of risk-mitigatation technologies, recovering the biomass it lost in the first half of 2021, and strengthening its financial position.
The company previously reported two separate algae bloom incidents at its operations in Reñihue fjord and Comau fjord. Resulting mortalities diminished the company’s harvest capacity and sales volume. The incidents generated a decrease in Salmones Camanchaca’s equity from USD 204 million (EUR 176 million) in December 2019 to USD 144 million (EUR 124 million) in June 2021, El Mercurio reported.
García estimated Salmones Camanchaca will return to its previous production levels by 2023, and said the company is developing a plan to lower the risk caused by algae blooms, which have repeatedly struck Chile's coast in recent years.
As part of that plan, Camanchaca said it will reduce salmon farming in the fjords of the Los Lagos Region, preferring instead its centers in the Aysén Region, which it said have better water-renewal rates and a lower risk of blooms. The company also said it will equip the centers with higher exposure to algae blooms with technology to detect them and mitigate their impact.
Furthermore, it plans to replace Atlantic salmon with coho salmon at its farming centers in the Los Lagos Region, as it harvests coho before Chile's summer, when the risk of blooms increase due to higher water temperatures.
Photo courtesy of Camanchaca
