Subpesca presented a new norm to reduce site densities by 50%.
The Minister of Economy, Ignacio Guerrero and Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca),Eduardo Riquelme, presented a new standard on the density of fish allowed in salmon farming, during a meeting with farmers on Friday.
Authorities have wanted to impose regulatory changes to set a fixed limit on the number of salmon that an occupy a pen for sustainability, environmental and sanitary reasons.
Under the new rules, densities has been has been reduced from 8 kg per cubic metre to 4kg. However farming sites who intend to reduce their growth projection by themselves are positively rewarded.
“The good price of salmon and the positioning it has in the world market, can lead some people to have a short-term view, in which, in exchange for greater profits, sustainability is sacrificed,” said Undersecretary Riquelme.
“It is a dual standard that has two speeds, it is positive and different from the original proposal, and it considers suggestions, opinions and ideas that they (the salmon producers) presented to us,” he continued.
“The mechanism that we are solving is more flexible than the one originally proposed, and welcomes comments from the industry, whose questions have been answered,” Riquelme explained. “As a government, our emphasis is to allow economic growth, but also sustainable growth,” he added.
