Chile has been making huge profits from its leading seafood resource, farmed Atlantic salmon. However, legal and health issues are still affecting the biggest companies in the country.
Farmed Atlantic salmon is Chile’s most valuable resource in the aquaculture sector, representing 46.5 percent of the country’s production and 43.4 percent of its seafood exports. According to government reports, in January and February Chile exported a total of 98,588 metric tons (MT) of salmon, 17 percent more than in the same period last year. Also, because of a price increase, it generated 40.9 percent more revenue than the previous year. Chile exports 65.4 percent of its Atlantic salmon to the United States and Brazil.
Frozen salmon prices have increased 77.9 percent: A pound costs about $3.50, while last year it was priced at $2.45. At the end of March the price of the Chilean salmon in the U.S. market increased slightly to $4.95 a pound, 10 cents higher than the week before.
According to an insider in one of Chile’s leading salmon export companies, the rise in prices is going to bring problems for the industry. “Some buyers in the United States are searching for cheaper alternatives than what the Chilean companies are offering; the rest of the year is not looking bright.”
Producers had a rough start to the year. An infectious salmon anemia (ISA) outbreak affected a farm in Chiloé, an island off the Southern coast, and caused the National Fishing and Agricultural Service (Sernapesca) to keep the area in emergency alert. However, the precautions taken by the government prevented the spread of the infection.
Pablo Galileam, fishing sub-secretary at the time, said: “There is a program to control ISA, so we are in better condition to face an infection that will be always present in Chile, which already has seven or eight rebounds a year and are kept under control.”
But the problems don’t stop there. Today, because of a legal dispute between Norwegian company Marine Harvest Chile and Salmones Sur Austral, Chilean officials took control of two of Marine Harvest’s facilities and seized their inventory. — Brewington & Co.
