Marine Harvest against the elimination of lake usage
According to Alvaro Jimenez, general manager of Marine Harvest Chile, an industry wide change from lake usage to land based recirculation usage for the fresh water stage of production can occur "only when the technology and the finances allow for it. The land based systems, besides being more expensive, need time to be validated and completely controlled for the purpose of preventing ISA." General manager Alberto Romero of Pesquera El Golfo disagrees with Jimenez’s stance on the subject and believes that the salmon industry lacks the ability to implement and successfully enforce the biological controls necessary in fresh water to avoid the dissemination of diseases. In fact, The Ministry of the Economy is doing its part in promoting the transition from lake-based farms to land based recirculation, by providing $120 million in financing guarantees for salmon companies so that they may invest in recirculation technology and move out of Chile’s fresh water lakes. In the Diario Financiero Jimenez argues that today’s production practices and biosanitary controls are much stricter than a year ago and greatly help in minimizing the risk of disease contamination in the fresh water lakes.
