Multiexport predicts huge leap in harvests

Christian Pérez Although the company has continued stocking about the same number of Atlantic salmon smolts since 2011 (~12 million smolts), this year it expects to harvest 46.9 per cent more fish compared to 2013, equating to 57,663 tonnes of Atlantic salmon, according to the company's latest quarterly presentation.   Multiexport states that its Atlantic salmon stocking will not increase until the company achieves a satisfactory farming performance. Regarding trout, the company expects to harvest 2,391 tonnes this year. This figure is very similar to that recorded by the company in 2013 (2,316 tonnes) although there is a huge difference in further projections: the company stocked 1.8 million trout smolts in 2013 and none in 2014. Apparently, this is part of a common trend in several local salmon producing companies which consists of moving from trout to Atlantic and Coho salmon due to sanitary reasons.   The company expects to harvest close to 5,500 tonnes of Coho salmon this year versus no production of this species in 2013. Likewise, Multiexport will stock about 2 million Coho smolts in 2014, compared to none in the previous year.