The Salmones Chaicas RAS facility, near Puerto Montt, which was designed by Puchi Architects. Image: Cargo Collective.

Grand plans for Chaicas

Aquachile is now the sole owner of Salmones Chaicas, an RAS facility which could produce over 12 million smolts a year in time, buying out the remaining shareholders in a deal worth US $15 million.

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After the industry was affected by the ISA virus last decade, Aquachile and other partners formed Salmones Chaicas SA, which then build a recirculation fish farm under the same name. The installation currently has a production capacity of 120 million eggs and 4.2 million of smolts, while planning permission for a second phase, which would increase the maximum capacity to 12.6 million smolts, is currently being applied for.

As reported by Aquachile at the time, the project was justified – following the suspension and restrictions of farming operations in lakes, estuarine waters or terrestrial breeding grounds – in order to increase the company’s flexibility and ability to meet its production schedule.

The financial circumstances post-ISA made it impossible for Aquachile to run the project alone – it needed the support of other shareholders. Now conditions have changed, and Chile’s largest salmon farmer has acquired all of Salmones Chaicas for the production of Atlantic salmon ova and smolts, as the firm recently reported to the Superintendency of Securities and Insurance (SVS).