March 25, 2014

Blumar Seafoods to exit from trout farming

 

 

 

Chilean fishing and fish farming company Blumar Seafoods is getting out of trout farming and plans to produce 37,000 tonnes of salmonids - in this case Atlantic salmon and trout - next year, down from a projected 44,000 tonnes this year, as a result of the lack of trout.

 

"The better use of our licenses is salmon, not trout," Eduardo Goycoolea, sales and marketing director, said. "So since we have limited licenses, we prefer to focus on Atlantic salmon."

 

Total volumes may come back in the future, but for now, Blumar's focus is on keeping production stable after a tough year. Due to sanitary problems throughout Chile last year, companies have generally break-even, if not losing money.

 

This year's production estimate is up slightly from the 42,000 tonnes produced last year but down 6.4% from 47,000 tonnes in 2012, Goycoolea said.

 

Trout in particular has been difficult from a sanitary perspective, and on top of that, trout yields less meat per grow-out cycle. Although trout grow-out cycles are shorter - at 12-15 months, compared to 15-20 for salmon – the ultimate yield of 2.5 to three kilogrammes is far less attractive than salmon's four to five kilogrammes, he said.

 

Trout also has particularly big instability issues on both the production and marketing sides. Sanitary conditions of trout are "very unstable", and the market in Japan - the main consumer of Chilean trout - sees wide price fluctuations. With no real alternative markets, these fluctuations are far less than optimal, Goycoolea said.

 

This marks the end of about eight years of trout farming for Blumar's Itata brand, which merged with El Golfo to form Blumar in 2011. Itata had begun trout farming in 2006. The two companies are continuing their focus on Atlantic salmon, as well as wild fish from Chile, although challenges also abound in each of those.

 

For one, sea lice levels in Atlantic salmon the past year kept fish sizes small.

 

This comes as the company faces tough times in its fishing business. Quotas went down from 40,000 tonnes in 2013 to 19,000 tonnes this year, and this comes after years of a declining resource, Goycoolea said. To put things in perspective, the quota was in the range of 120,000 tonnes to 140,000 tonnes 10-15 years ago, he said.

 

The company has had to lay off 300 workers and launch a joint venture with Congelados del Pacifico. It is processing both its product and that of Congelados in order to make production operations cost effective, and instead of fishing with four vessels, it is now fishing with two.

 

The creation of the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) is poised to help combat the problem. This enables Chilean salmon farmers and those in Norway to collaborate to discuss techniques to curb sea lice problems, not to mention other sanitary issues and feed issues.

 

GSI has official face to face meetings once or twice a year, in addition to monthly conference calls and informal emails between members. The organisation also provides a sense of common purpose, considering that last year, all members committed to becoming Aquaculture Stewardship Council-certified by 2020.