December 31, 2009
Chile's salmon production could fall in 2009
With lesser releases this year, Chile's salmon production could be heading for a decline.
The Chilean salmon industry has released less than 30 million Atlantic salmon smolts this year, representing an 82% decrease compared to 170 million smolts entered to sea in 2007, prior to the current sanitary problems. Likewise, Atlantic salmon harvests have decreased 20% compared to last year.
However, this sector has increased its expectations over the last months, thanks to the sanitary measures it has implemented.
For instance, some of the measures such as mandatory vaccination and sanitary fallows have contributed to decreasing mortalities to 1% from over 50% before its implementation. Due to these signs of improvement, companies will increase their production in 2010 and 2011.
