SalmonChile President Cesar Barros. (Photo: Ministerio de Economia)

'Salmon farming still has a way to go': union president

CHILE
Thursday, April 22, 2010, 17:00 (GMT + 9)

A Chilean salmon industry leader has acknowledged that the sector still has a way to go following the enactment of the new General Fisheries and Aquaculture Law. The modifications incorporated to the aquaculture legislation mark a milestone in overcoming the crisis borne from infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus outbreaks that surged in 2007, he further affirms.

"The industry quickly understood that the way [we] do salmon farming in Chile had to change," said the president of the Salmon Industry Association of Chile AG (SalmonChile), Cesar Barros.

According to the executive, it was within the framework of the international aquaculture exhibition Aqua Sur, in March 2008, where "[they] identified the need to enter a productive process that took into account the externalities that are implied in sharing the sea." Thus arose the concept of ‘neighbourhoods,’ with coordinated rests, of associative practises and a joint vision of communal property over individual practices.

Barros also noted that the government had to recognise that their norms and capacities had been surpassed. This led to the creation of the Salmon Table, headed by the ex-Fisheries Subsecretary, Felipe Sandoval, and integrated by experts of the Chile Foundation and a body of lawyers and technicians that interacted with the industry and with some NGOs, artisanal fishers, miticulturists, and local authorities, Aqua reports.

"They formulated the respective bill and the issuing of regulations that incorporated the measures approved within the union,” Barros indicated.

He further added: “The effort was enormous and nothing less was expected. The plague of the ISA had far worse effects than any industry had sustained with the recent earthquake-tsunami. The number of productive centres fell by half: from 344 in 2007 to 174 this year.”

In terms of overcoming adversity by part of salmon farming, Barros affirmed that "few industries have done such revolutionary work while deep within their [own] crises." He pointed out that the same could not be said for the "global financial industry nor the auto [industry], to name only the most important."

However, he admitted that “convincing new capital to reinvest in the industry will require major doses of trust in the new norms and the extension of their fulfilment.”

Meanwhile, the National Fisheries Service (SERNAPESCA) informed that the number of farming centres in the outbreak category remains at zero.

According to the last report issued by the organisation, suspect centres fell from eight to five, and the facilities at sanitary rest also declined from 28 to 25.

Related article:

- New fisheries and aquaculture law enacted

By Analia Murias
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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