Production cost breakthrough
Due to the implementation of new biosecurity measures and good practices, most Chilean salmon companies have seen their costs skyrocket after the ISA crisis. However, most of them have reduced their costs in the past quarters and one of them - for the first time in several years - has posted a cost ex-cage below US $3 per kg: Camanchaca reported US $2.95 per kg in Q1 2015.
In comparison, the company recorded production costs of US $3.72 per kg in the same quarter of last year. According to the company, these reduced costs are result of improved sanitary conditions in their salmon farming sites. Likewise, the company explains that part of the explanation relies on the harvesting of the farming site ‘Islote’ (close to 10,000 tonnes WFE) "probably one of the company's most efficient, which is harvested at the beginning of odd years".
These improved sanitary conditions would be the result of increased sanitary coordination between neighbors; the use of more effective treatments and medical devices; and smaller biomass in sensitive ecosystems such as northern Aysen where performances have been observed to be significantly above those seen in 2013. It should be noted that the farming sites harvested in the first quarter of 2015 are equivalent to those harvested in the same quarter of 2013, given the 24-month cycle of each neighborhood.
The company's Atlantic salmon harvest increased by 7.2%, up to 12,000 tonnes WFE, in Q1 2015, and this economy of scale also helped to improve costs, said Camanchaca.
