Chile's farmed salmon industry faces a "complicated" year due to a wide range of factors, a trade organization said Tuesday at the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Santiago, Chile.
A U.S. economic slowdown, a sharp appreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollar, higher energy costs and the ongoing battle with infectious salmon anemia (ISA) will make 2008 a difficult year, said Cesar Barros, president of SalmonChile.
"It is a year in which the exchange rate has had an effect, as has the cost of production," said Barros. "It has also been a year in which the global economy and United States economy are cooling down, so for the export industry that is bad news."
Barros added that the impact of the ISA virus may yet worsen.
"It is a virus about which very little is known, about how it is transmitted. There is a hypothesis, but there is sadly not much science," Barros said. "It has the potential to be very negative (for the industry) and we haven't yet seen that full potential."
One Canadian farmed-salmon supplier is trying to capitalize on Chile's struggles with ISA. On Monday, SQNB Marketing of St. George, New Brunswick, announced that no ESQU certified Canadian salmon are infected with ISA.
"Nor do we expect ISA to be a problem with our fish in the future because of the way we raise our fish," said Terry Drost, GM of SQNB in a press release.
ESQU Certified Canadian farmed salmon was recently introduced to the market by John Nagle Co. in Boston. ESQU farmed salmon is sourced solely from producers and suppliers that are certified based on the Food Marketing Institute's Safe Quality Food program.
Atlantic Canada's salmon-farming industry was hit with the ISA virus several years ago but has since recovered.
