September 16, 2013

Chile imported 49.3 million eggs in July 2013, a decrease of 24.1% over the same month last year, as reported by the under secretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca).

According to Subpesca, 50.7% of this total corresponds to rainbow trout and 49.3% to Atlantic salmon. In relation to the origin of the genetic material, in the case of trout, the eggs came from Denmark while 100% of Atlantic salmon eggs were imported from Iceland.

Last August two salmon egg importing companies expressed their views on the decision of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) to temporarily cancel the authorisation to import this product.

Soledad Francke, managing director of AquaSearch Chile, said that they had been notified by Sernapesca on the temporary cancellation of egg imports while the risk analysis already performed in Denmark for totivirus and piscine reovirus (PRV) is updated.

Rodolfo Infante, general manager of Stofnfiskur Chile Ltda, ensured the company "continues to work on the same concepts of high health and biosecurity standard that it has always had."

"That should not change due to the mere fact that a new pathogen will be incorporated into the epidemiologic surveillance programme undertaken by the Government of Iceland," he added.