The agreement with Salmar includes sales of eggs from Benchmark's land-based sites in Iceland.

Chilean roe imports continue climbing

Atlantic salmon roe imports in the first ten months of this year have increased almost 120 per cent compared to the same period in 2014, reversing a general decline in roe imports which began in 2009.

Christian Pérez

The Chilean salmonid aquaculture industry imported 40.59 million eggs as of October 2015, representing a 24 per cent increase compared to the 32.72 million eggs imported in the same months of 2014.

According to a report recently published by the National Fisheries Service (Sernapesca), Chile imported 10.97 million rainbow trout eggs in the first ten months of this year - a 42.9 per cent decrease compared to the 19.20 million eggs imported in the same period of 2014.

However, the country imported 29.62 million Atlantic salmon eggs as of October 2015, representing a 119.0 per cent increase compared to the 13.52 million eggs imported in the same period of 2014.

So far this year, all the Atlantic salmon roe imports came from Iceland while the rainbow trout roe imports hailed from Denmark, just like in 2014.

The Chilean salmon industry imported nearly 300 million eggs in 2007 and 2008 but has been gradually reducing those imports since - to about 100 million in 2010, less than 50 million by 2013 and barely over 40 million in 2014.