80,000 tonnes a year-on-year fresh and frozen are exported to China.
Pauta Bloomberg reports that Sernapesca boss Alicia Gallardo is working with Chinese authorities to do a remote inspection on Friday in three salmon processing facilities.
A supposed link between Beijing’s COVID-19 outbreak and imported salmon has sent a chill through the lucrative salmon markets.
Country’s such as Scotland, Faroe Islands and Norway are struggling to get fish in, but the Latin American country – which exports 80,000 tonnes a year fresh and frozen to China – say they are not.
Trade association SalmonChile released a statement that emphasised that there had been no official notification from Chinese authorities to that salmon had not, so far, had any restrictions on exports.
China NO está cerrada a exportaciones chilenas de ningún tipo, incluido el salmón. En @GobiernodeChile, @sernapesca, @subrei_chile y @ProChile trabajan coordinadamente con sus contrapartes para mantener nuestro comercio abierto y consistente con obligaciones OMC y TLC Chile-China
— Rodrigo Yañez (@rodrigoyanezb) June 16, 2020
Furthermore, Chile’s Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Rodrigo Yañez tweeted that “China is NOT closed to Chilean exports of any kind, including salmon”.
The publication added that because of Chilean salmon farmers’ concerns about the restriction on sale, many of them have changed exports for other markets.
In the case of frozen salmon, Gallardo explained that “some returned them and there are about 50 containers that are in transit”. She added that the inspection – which will be carried out on Friday – will give “assurances that we have a control of biosecurity and safety measures.”
