Aqualine Chile making sales in Puerto Montt
News taken from www.aqua.cl, April 27-07
Aqualine Chile’s general manager, Oyvind Karlsen is equally pleased and relieved to have earned a place in Chile’s salmon industry since setting up shop in Puerto Montt last year. In 2006 Aqualine reached US$20 million in worldwide sales and for 2007 the company hopes to surpass US$35 million. Marine Harvest is their principal customer in Europe, and expectations are high that Aqualine’s reputation and performance will be passed on in Chile. The company is known for its construction of circular cages for salmon farming, which continue to expand in diameter. “Currently 70% of the cages recently sold are 50 m in diameter. But that size is not our limit,” states Karlsen.
Apart from their large diameter, Aqualine cages also claim of a security system that prevents fish escapes. According to Trond Lysklaett, director of Aqualine Norway, “Our cages have the advantage of having a built-in security system that impedes fish escapes, helping to solve an enormous concern for salmon producers.” This statement couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune moment, considering that Lysklaett came to visit Puerto Montt just days before the earthquake in Aysén, a natural disaster that destroyed twelve salmon farm sites and caused the escape of an estimated 12 million caged salmon.
So far the company has sold eight large diameter cages to the Chilean owned salmon company Pacific Star, and had to import materials from Norway for the construction of the cages.
