Nova Austral, which has centered its salmon brand around production in the far southern waters of Chilean Patagonia, has officially agreed to pull some of its farming concessions out of Alberto de Agostini National Park.
The Porvenir, Chile-based company has been increasing its presence in Chile’s Region XII recently, primarily through increased production of its Sixty South Brand. It struck a deal with the Chilean government to relocate 26 concessions inside the park’s boundaries to other locations in the Magallanes region of Chile, at an estimated cost of USD 80 million (EUR 70.4 million) over the next two years, CEO Nicos Nicolaides told Reuters.
“We have agreed to emigrate out of the park,” Nicolaides said.
Nicolaides added the company had not been forced to make the move, but made the decision of its own volition.
The concessions ended up inside the park’s boundaries after the park was expanded recently. Chile’s aquaculture regulator previously announced it won’t issue new concessions inside the park.
SeafoodSource previously reported Nova Austral would be moving at least 13 of the affected concessions to the Ensenada Wilson region of the Clarence Island, to the east of the national park.
Meanwhile, the company has won a decision regarding four additional concessions it took over through its February 2019 acquisition of salmon farmer Cabo Pilar. The four farms are located in the Beagle Channel, near the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, but its right to operate them was challenged by local residents, backed by Greenpeace.
The company won a recent legal appeal that will permit it to farm in the concessions, but Nicolaides told SeafoodSource at the 2019 Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium that he expects the case to be appealed all the way up to Chile’s Supreme Court. That process will take up to another year to play out, he said.
Nicolaides said Nova Austral has been unfairly targeted because it is owned by non-Chilean investment funds Bain Capital and Altor Fund III and operated primarily by Norwegians.
“They are making the argument that Norwegians are willing to do dirty things in Chile that we are not allowed to do in Norway,” he said. “It’s quite ridiculous.”
Nicolaides said he’s convinced his company will win in court, but he’s worried about the impact the opposition’s delaying tactics will have on the company’s operations.
“We will win, but the problem is if this takes too long, the result is our smolts will die,” he said. “The smolts are ready to go into the sea but we are prohibited from doing so until the case is resolved. This means keeping the smolts in freshwater longer and longer until after some time, the smolts lose ability to live in saltwater, then they’re useless. I think what [Greenpeace] is trying to do delay us to make us lose these smolts and lose the sites.”
