Chilean salmon recovery may take five years
Many Chilean manufacturers believe that the salmon industry will recover in about five years' time, after the crisis of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) outbreak in 2007 that plagued numerous farms across the country.
Though there is a general agreement among the members of the salmon industry with regards to the recovery of the sector, Cesar Barros, the president for the Association of the Chilean Salmon Industry A.G. (SalmonChile) said "it depends on the speed with which they created each company, as there are some that will come out faster than others."
However, the vice president of Invertec Pesquera Mar de Chiloe, Alberto Montanari believes that the industry will recover during 2011.
"We will return next year to the historical production figures, by duplicating them, because we've had recirculating aquaculture, which is very expensive, and we only need to generate working capital through a capital increase of nearly US$25 million. Other firms will be delayed by two to four years, as they don't have some fixed assets. The good news is that there are many investors willing to generate working capital, making the world of salmon fishing increasingly profitable," Montanari said.
Meanwhile, the general manager of Pesquera Itata S.A., Gerardo BalbontÃn, estimates that salmon production could recover to the level it was before the outbreak of the ISA virus by 2013.
"Chile has great potential in terms of aquaculture to be able to produce, in volumes, what they were prior to the ISA and possibly even surpass it. The time needed to make the product is long in this business, considering the life cycle of the fish," he said.
