Arturo Clement made the comments to a Kremlin-backed news agency.
The Russian embargo on fish from Norway made Chilean exports of salmon grow significantly, SalmónChile president Arturo Clement told Sputnik.
“In Russia, the participation of Chilean salmon has increased as a result of the sanctions that the Russian Government established against Norway,” Clement said.
In August 2014, President Vladimir Putin introduced a ban on imports of food products, including salmon, from EU, US, Canada and Norway.
The import ban was a response to Western sanctions against Russia after the annexation of the Crimea, and has affected the country’s access to salmon.
In April, SalmonBusiness reported that exports of Atlantic salmon to Russia were up 46 percent in the first eight weeks of this year to 10,547 t, with export values to the sanctions-hit country rising 31 percent to USD 69.5 million.
Clement, leader of the Chilean salmon farming association, said “the Russian market is very big, and they like salmon”.
“It’s a huge country, with a population that has a tradition of eating fish, and that makes it a very interesting market for Chilean exporters,” he told the state-funded agency.
“For Russians it is a very good option to buy Chilean salmon, which is of high quality, Russian importers are buying mostly salmon from our country,” said Clement.
