Chilean industrial fishing firm Pesquera Alimar has announced it will sue the nation’s government for around USD 100 million (EUR 84.7 million) for what it sees as expropriatory actions outlined in a fishing quota bill that was approved last year.
The company is the latest to announce legal action against the government, joining fellow fishing firms Camanchaca and Blumar, as well as Landes, in filing claims for compensation of damages.
“What we are looking for is legal certainty,” Alimar Deputy General Manager Benjamín Izquierdo told local paper Diario Financiero. “The bare minimum is to be able to trust the word that the state gave you.”
Outgoing Chile President Gabriel Boric introduced the fishing quota bill last year, aiming to reduce quotas allocated to industrial fishing firms while increasing artisanal quotas for species such as anchovies, Spanish sardines, horse mackerel, and common hake. Chile’s Senate then voted the new fishing quota bill into law in June 2025 to replace the nation’s previous fishing law, enacted in 2013 and originally set to last until 2032. Boric had called the previous fishing law “illegitimate and illegal.”
“We believe that [the new law] has largely to do with ideology. I think it also is a type of revenge stemming from the cases of corruption that existed in the previous law,” Izquierdo said, adding that Alimar is currently performing economic studies to back the filing of the legal action.
Alimar said it sees the government’s move as a direct threat to its continuing operations. In fact, the move and the legal uncertainty surrounding it will require the company to desist from its planned USD 18 million (EUR 15.2 million) investment to build a frozen food plant in Lota in the Biobío region, Izquierdo noted. The company recently obtained approval for the plant’s construction, following a 14-year regulatory back-and-forth with environmental authorities.
“It would be irresponsible to shareholders or to the company's own employees to make tremendous investments without knowing if you're going to be able to have the raw material to operate a plant,” Izquierdo said.
In recent years, Alimar has incorporated a new ship into its fleet, modernized equipment, and achieved certification of its fish oil plant for human consumption. The company has also invested in reducing odor emissions at its plants by 70 percent within two to three years.
Alimar was established more than 70 years ago and currently has an average annual production of 20,000 metric tons (MT) of fishmeal and 7,000 MT of fish oil. It focuses on pelagic resources such as horse mackerel, sardines, and anchovy. Its premium mackerel fishmeal is exported to niche sectors in Asia, mainly to South Korea, Japan, and China, while its line of frozen horse mackerel is largely exported to African markets, such as Nigeria and Cameroon.
