AquaChile, Víctor Hugo Puchi, predicts that 2010 will close will close with the lowest salmon on record. (Photo:Stock File/ Fedequellon)

Salmon sector recovery not until 2011: top exec

CHILE
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 15:40 (GMT + 9)

The recovery of Chile's hard hit salmon industry will still take a little more than a year, states the president of AquaChile, Victor Hugo Puchi.

“The new salmon sowings will take effect in the second half of 2011,” the executive explains, predicting the lowest harvest on record for the sector in 2010.

The spread of the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus is still not controlled although its presence has fallen in farming centres around the country, Puchi notes.

For that reason, he estimates that the recovery of the salmon farming sector will begin as of the second half of next year, following a 2009 marked by financial, productive and sanitary crises.

“What happens this year is already in play. The fish that are going to be harvested and processed in the industry and that are going to be exported are the fish that are already in the midst of breeding and there is no way to alter that,” he said in an interview with La Tercera.

"The speed of the new sowings is going to have a productive effect as of the second half of 2011. Therefore, we must accept reality, that 2010 will be the year of the lowest harvest of the industry as a whole. We need to look ahead and see how we recover the lost space in terms of production in a more sustainable and safer framework for the industry. We need to operate and act in accordance with the biomass we have and prepare ourselves to grow responsibly as from 2011,” Puchi continued saying.

The executive stressed that the recovery of industry will be slow, because they must avoid "reinitiating the productive processes under risky conditions."

In terms of the future, Puchi contends that it is positive that different producers unite and form partnerships "that are more efficient in sanitary control." In addition, this association will make it possible for them to act jointly and place their assets in larger conglomerates.

Upon being consulted on the possibility that AquaChile merges with Friosur SA, Puchi offered: “All unions and joint work between producers are possible. I believe that the experience that we lived through with ISA is going to cause there to be more of an attitude of cooperation and joint action by part of companies, but what marriages are produced will be seen in the future.”

Lastly, he affirmed that the employment levels will recover when harvests do, something that will not be easy before 2011.

As far as the General Fisheries and Aquaculture Law (LGPA), which he described as “invaluable for the sector,” its effect will be seen when a new production system becomes operational, he said.

In other news, the National Fisheries Service (SERNAPESCA) informed that the number of farming centres in the outbreak category holds at one, in Pangal, owned by the company Mainstream Chile.

The number of centres under suspicion fell from eight to seven - with respect to the previous report – and the facilities at sanitary rest remain at 29.

Related articles:

- Passage of fisheries law satisfies unionists, execs
- Marine Harvest to double smolt sowings

By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com

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