Safeway threat already subsiding

Perhaps Philippe Barbe of Direct Océan was right? Barbe, owner of France’s largest salmon import and distribution company, Direct Océan spoke to Intrafish earlier this week regarding his opinion of Safeway’s decision to stop buying Chilean salmon, claiming the move to be a PR stunt in conjunction with the negative press from the New York Times. Although the bad news from Safeway was good news for other buyers in need of Chile’s salmon supply such as Direct Océan, Barbe believes that the Safeway boycott will be short lived. On the other hand, according to Chile’s financial newspaper La Estrategia, Safeway’s decision to stop buying salmon from Chile’s leading salmon supplier Marine Harvest was due primarily to current quality and supply problems Marine Harvest has been struggling with since the ISA crisis, and not necessarily related to the New York Times article.