Legal process started to establish amount of losses incurred.
Undercurrent News reports that Australis Seafoods is pressing charges against Chilean salmon feed manufacturers after the government announced alleged price collusion in 2019.
In December last year, Chile’s competition regulator, the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office (FNE) accused four salmon feed producers of colluding with each other for 12 years to set the price of feed.
The companies accused of setting prices between 2003 and 2015 – were the Chilean divisions of Biomar Chile, Comercializadora Nutreco Chile, Ewos Chile Alimentos and Vitapro Chile (Salmofood). Though the agency requested an exemption for EWOS Group, a part of Cargill since 2015 because it acted as a whistleblower in the case.
Authorities called for a USD 70 million fine splits four ways.
Chinese Joyvio Group (a subsidiary of Legend Holding) owns Australis Seafoods, which has filed suits against all the main four salmon feed producers mentioned above bar Ewos.
Attorney Jose Miguel Gana, part of the law firm Gana y Galvez representing Australis, told the publication that “the evidence will be presented at an opportune moment, within the framework of this [lawsuit], or in the development of the legal process to establish the amount of losses incurred for the company”.
A Biomar spokesperson told SalmonBusiness: “In regards to the case in Chile, we do not have any comments at the moment as the case is following the legal process.”
On Friday, a spokesperson for Nurtreco – who own Skretting Chile – said: “Given that the case is still before the court, we will not be commenting.”
“We were formally served by the Chilean Competition Court, following the complaint made by the FNE (Competition Authority) in December and filed our Statement of Defence on May 19 2020.
“Having carefully reviewed the complaint, Skretting plans to fight the charges brought forward by the FNE; Skretting will make every effort to demonstrate the allegations are incorrect.
“We maintain and are committed to, the highest standard in terms of competition compliance and business ethics,” they said.
