Chilean Salmon Farming on the Horizon of Sustainability: Review of the Development of a Highly Intensive Production, the ISA Crisis and Implemented Actions to Reconstruct a More Sustainable Aquaculture Industry - Aquaculture and the Environment: A Shared Destiny - page 215

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Chilean Salmon Farming on the Horizon of
Sustainability: Review of the Development of a
Highly Intensive Production, the ISA Crisis
and Implemented Actions to Reconstruct
a More Sustainable Aquaculture Industry
Pablo Ibieta 1 , Valentina Tapia 1 , Claudia Venegas 1 ,
Mary Hausdorf 1 and Harald Takle 1,2
1 AVS Chile SA, Puerto Varas
2 Nofima, Ås
1 Chile
2 Norway
1. Introduction
Historically the Chilean economy has been based in exports accounting for 35% of the gross
domestic product and mining is the main export income in the country. However, since
1980s as a part of a promotion the Chilean economy has diversified in part away from its
dangerous over-reliance on copper exports. The growth of earnings in the fruit, wine, wood
and forestry, fisheries and aquaculture sectors in particular, has been rapid since the early
1980s as Chile has exploited its comparative advantage in environmental endowment and
low labour costs on the global market (Barton, 1997; Barton & Murray, 2009). The salmonid
cultivation is restricted to regions with particular water temperature ranges in both fresh
and seawater environments, sheltered waters and critically excellent water quality. Thus,
salmonid aquaculture has become an important activity and the main development gear in
the southern regions of Chile. The Chilean salmon industry has shown a fast development
over the last 20 years and, therefore; today, Chile is the largest producer of farmed rainbow
trout and Coho salmon, and the second worldwide of Atlantic salmon. This situation is the
result from the application of innovation and development of value added products, which
produced an average annual growth rate of 22% from 1990 to 2007 and an increase of
exports from USD 159 million in 1991 to USD 2,242 million in 2007 (SalmonChile, 2007a). In
2006, salmon exports represented 12.94% of the non-mining-related national exports and
38.75% of the Chilean food exports that decreased due to a sanitary crisis down to 9.94% and
31.08% in 2010, respectively (Banco Central de Chile, 2010). The latter indicated that the
salmon industry has become an important factor in economic diversification and one
fundamental base in the strategy towards positioning Chile in the top rank of world food
producers (SalmonChile, 2007b). The growth of aquaculture also impact positively other
important sectors of the national economy, such as transport, processing, feed and engineer
suppliers, laboratories, veterinary services and many others.