Production cost of smolts could increase by 35%
Rafaeli refers to an amendment in the new Sanitary Regulation, which is currently at the consultation stage. Among other modifications, these new rules propose to avoid the production of smolts in estuaries, rivers and lakes due to sanitary reasons, forcing those companies with farming sites in such bodies of water to move their production into land-based facilities.
According to the financial journal Estrategia, he commented that this business (salmon farming) has to be viable and also stressed that when comparing the cost of producing one smolt in estuaries (USD 0.96) versus the production of one smolt in land-based facilities (USD 1.31) there is a 35% difference.
Trusal presented a document against this regulatory modification, arguing that this situation has to be technically reviewed, because these bodies of water have the best ecologic attributes, lower energy consumption, local dispersion and dilution and reduced organic load for the production of good quality smolts. The company further explained that one of the key objectives embraced by the Chilean salmon industry is the production of smolts of better quality, while smoltification in estuaries could contribute sustainably to the achievement of this goal over time.
