February 8, 2011

 

Mitsubishi takes on the salmon industry

 

 

Japanese company Mitsubishi has joined forces with Primar, a company which specializes in providing services for the salmon industry, to set up Southern Cross Seafoods, which will sell salmon and trout.

 

Mitsubishi will have 80% ownership in the new society, with the remainder belonging to Primar.

 

With this initiative, the Japanese company aims to carry through a target which it set over the past 10 years, which is to participate in the sale of salmon. 
 

In 2001, the then president of Mitsubishi Chile, Yoshinobu Otagaki, publicly expressed company's interest in entering the salmon market and operating as a trader with the aim of commercializing salmonids in the Asian market. But that project never materialized.

 

According to a local industry source, there have been strong rumours circulating for some time indicating that "Mitsubishi has always been courting companies to find a society."

 

One of the firms that was contacted by the Japanese company was Salmones Ventisqueros, which is a company controlled by German and Chilean capital.

 

Until 2006, the current CEO and owner of Primar, Eduardo Kipreos, was general manager of Ventisqueros.

 

According to different voices in the industry, Mitsubishi will buy salmon and trout for wholesalers, and Primar will process species to be sold in Asia.

 

Currently, Primar has a processing, manufacturing and distribution plant for salmonids in Puerto Montt.

 

"It's a company which processes salmon for numerous companies and the larger ones use them when they are overstocked," reports La Tercera.

 

Southern Cross Seafoods will have four directors: the manager of food and general merchandise from Mitsubishi, Nobuyuki Yoshimura; Kipreos, Shinya Kuroko and Yasumasa Kashiwagi.

 

Recently, the Subsecretary of Fisheries (Subpesca) and the Association for the Chilean Salmon Industry A.G. (SalmonChile) reported that national salmon production could return to normal levels by 2013, after facing serious problems due to outbreaks of the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in 2007.

 

"We're happy, because all health indicators show the industry to be much better today, even before the ISA virus crisis and, indeed, what happened during the crisis," said the Subsecretary of Fishing, Pablo Galilea.

 

According to a report, between January and December 2010, returns on salmon exports totalled US$2,059 million.

 

Of that total, Japan bought products for US$909 million.