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Facilities at an Itata salmon fish farm. (Photo: Itata)
Itata plans to construct more operational salmon centres
(CHILE, 8/25/2010)
Pesquera Itata S.A. achieved the highest growth rate for any salmon company in the first half of this year, with an increase of over 2,000%. They have recently announced that they intend to stock a total of six million Atlantic salmon smolts and 1.3 million trout throughout 2010.
The general manager of the business, Gerardo Balbontín, clarified that the increase occured as harvesting only "began during the latter half of 2009, resulting in the basis for comparison within the first half of last year being very low."
However, he noted that in the first half of the year, Itata concentrated mainly on Atlantic salmon, which was barely harvested in the Chilean industry. Balbontín attributed this to their business centres not being affected by the ISA virus, allowing them to harvest salmon in late 2008.
The company currently operates nine centres, plus one in development. In 2011 they plan to install two more centres, which will leave them with 12 centres in total, reported Diario Financiero.
The Itata general manager believes that the current success which the business is experiencing is the result of these factors:
- A lower biomass in the water;
- A lower concentration of centers in operation;
- Applying improved health and biosecurity practices in the entire chain of production, carefully selecting which smolts to use and using the ISA virus vaccine.
However, he stressed that all of the problems caused by the virus had not yet been resolved, so the sector should not "let their guard down" and forget about the crisis.
"It's very easy to have a new relapse, if we are not careful, we must work in a coordinated manner and in compliance with all of the rules and regulations that are implemented both by law and voluntarily," he said.
With regards to the relocation of aquaculture centres, he said that "it is a powerful tool to make many concessions productively viable when usually, in practice, they are not usable." But he also said that, for different reasons, "its applicability is very limited and they can only regularize a limited number of concessions."
By Analia Murias
Information of the company:
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Address:
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Av. Presidente Riesco 5711 - Office 1201
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City:
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Las Condes
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State/ZIP:
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Santiago (4151)
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Country:
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Chile
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Phone:
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+56 2 782 5400
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Fax:
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+56 2 231 0973
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E-Mail:
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[email protected]
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More about: 
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