MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Salmon farming summit concludes Chile needs a state policy on the matter

Frei highlighted that Chile's salmon farming had grown without any State subsidies

Chile needs “a national vision” regarding salmon farming, SalmonChile President Arturo Clément noted in his closing speech at the “Salmon Summit 2024: Empowering Chilean salmon farming to 2050” event bringing together businessmen, union leaders, and other members of society linked to the activity.

“We need an aquaculture towards 2050 where all of us in this country can generate value, where we can have a permanent policy, and where we can really feed the world from Chile,” Clément also pointed out. “A complete modernization of the State is required, beyond what happens to us as salmon farmers,” he added.

“I believe that the State requires a redesign and to rise to the challenges that have been raised here, especially what former Senator Girardi said. In other words, we need a State that goes hand in hand with the rest of the country in order to be able to really lead Chile to development,” Clément insisted.

“The Norwegian State is modern and goes hand in hand, or if not, ahead of the private sector,” the businessman added regarding the world's other leading player in the salmon industry. “And that is the big difference. Today we have better environmental and productive indicators than they do, but we have higher costs due to the tangle of regulations that talk to each other. So that is the difference. A State that has knowledge and that goes hand in hand with the private sector,” he went on.

Former Defense Minister Vivianne Blanlot also said at the event that it was necessary “to leave behind some prejudices that exist among certain political sectors and the conception they have of private enterprise.”

“I believe that it is time for all of us to look together at the potential of some industries that we could really achieve development and that, if we do not leave prejudices aside, the truth is that we will not be able to move forward,” she insisted.

Society for Manufacturing Development (Sofofa) Secretary-General Rodrigo Yáñez, agreed that “there must be a national vision regarding the future development of salmon farming. And in this, the drive and support of the State and the government is fundamental. And also, from the point of view of what has been this sector, which is already the second largest exporter in Chile, how to continue reinforcing the path that was opened 30 years ago with the opening of Chile's trade and resuming at least 4% growth requires a new export drive and to double the export of services. And this industry, in particular, is already positioned today as the second largest exporter of goods, but also as an important consumer of high-tech services related to sustainability and which, in turn, are exportable industries in themselves.” Sofofa is the trade association of companies and unions in the Chilean industrial sector.

Also participating at the gathering was former President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, who highlighted that “the salmon industry has been the engine of growth in the south of Chile over the last 30 years.”

He also noted that every achievement had been ”Without receiving a single subsidy from the State. It has been done by the region, the businessmen, the workers, the institutions, everything. Without a single peso from the State. That is the important thing (...) And are we going to stop it, are we going to stop it, are we going to complicate it? If what it needs is to double itself for the next 30 years. It is capable of doing it. It has the people to do it. It has the investments to do it.”