SudMaris follows suit with top mussel growers
Although still lacking the fanfare of an AquaSur trade show, the third annual ExpoMytilus show held recently in the city of Castro, located on Chiloé Island drew a crowd of specialized souls dedicated to farming the native blue mussel, the “chorito” (Mytilus chilensis). At the show Ronald Gil, general manager of SudMaris Chile S.A. spoke with Aqua.cl about his company’s plans. “One of the primary objectives of SudMaris is innovation, to incorporate new technologies and eliminate many of the production “myths” existing in the industry. Our idea is to use the best tools available for quality improvement that will be seen our final product.” As with the company’s Spanish neighbors, Blue Shell S.A. and Toralla S.A., SudMaris will soon inaugurate its new top of the line processing plant in the town of Dalcahue on the island of Chiloé. The company expects to reach a processing capacity o 15 thousand tons of mussels by the year 2008, with sales of approximately US$25 million. SudMaris S.A. is owned by Victor Hugo Pucchi of AquaChile, and Julio Solar and Andrés Navarro of Pacific Star.
