News from fishfarmingxpert.com

Two new farming sites would be implemented nearby Punta Arenas Chile: The local salmon producing company Riverfish Ltd. would invest US$ 16 million in two new salmon farming sites to be located in Río Verde, in the Region of Magallanes. This project is expected to involve 71 cages in total and produce around 13,000 tonnes per year.

Riverfish Ltd. expects to implement two new salmon farming sites in the estuary “Gómez Carreño” and in the river “Pérez de Arce”, both located in the Río Verde district, in the Region of Magallanes.

These projects imply the investment of US$ 10 million and US$ 6.2 million, respectively, intended to reach an aggregated annual production of 13,000 tonnes in 71 circular cages (40m diameter).

According to the information provided by Acuícola Riverfish to the Environmental Impact Assessment System (SEIA), the company expects to produce at stocking densities of 7.3Kg/m3 and 11.5 Kg/m3 in each one of these sites, respectively.

Several sources have stated that the Region of Magallanes (Magellan) is expected to produce around 100,000 tonnes of salmonids by 2016.

Marine Harvest and Cooke would be interested in salmon subsidiaries of Pescanova Chile: The third week of next December would be the date of closure of all related negotiations involving Acuinova and Nova Austral, the two salmon subsidiaries of the Spanish giant Pescanova in Chile.

Following the bankruptcy of Pesca Chile and subsequent decision to sell part or the whole of this head company and its two salmon subsidiaries, Nova Austral and Acuinova, is that over 100 potential local and foreign stakeholders will be contacted this month and will receive a document with the main information of the three companies involved, the Chilean financial journal Diario Financiero reported.

During the first week of September 2013, the bankruptcy trustee Herman Chadwick will receive non-binding offers and after that, he will scan the market “to know the value of these assets according to the interested parties. However, in parallel, we are appraising the value of these firms” he said. Although no company name has been publicly disclosed so far, in the industry it is assumed that salmon producing companies like Marine Harvest and Cooke Aquaculture could be interested in the farming assets of Acuinova and Nova Austral, according to the information published in the Galician newspaper El Faro de Vigo.

Anyway, by the end of September this year, Mr Chadwick will establish a short list of stakeholders and by the end of November binding bids will be received, which will enter a bid closing process, which has been set for the third week of December.

FDA detains shipments from MH Chile to the US Chile: The Food and Drug Administration of the USA (FDA) put Marine Harvest Chile salmon shipments on hold until an issue regarding presence of crystal violet in Chilean product is sorted.

According to a press release provided by the salmon producing company, the presence of the chemical compound crystal violet was found during an inspection performed by the FDA in one portion of salmon in a container with frozen salmon sent from Marine Harvest Chile (MH Chile) to the US in June.

MH Chile claims to have collaborated with the FDA in order to clarify this situation, including total traceability to all their products as well as sampling and testing in third-party laboratories.

Meanwhile, last week -after a few months without any production, MH Chile resumed its shipments of fresh salmon to the US.

Given the current situation, that shipment was put on hold for the corresponding sampling and testing whose results will be available within 7 to 10 days.

Therefore, during that period of time, MH Chile cannot ship fresh product to the US from their own facilities. Sernapesca blocks exports of Marine Harvest Chile Chile: Sernapesca has blocked the exports of Marine Harvest Chile while the Authority executes an investigation related to the detection of crystal violet in product of the salmon producing company intended for the US market.

Several officers of the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Sernapesca, recently visited the headquarters of Marine Harvest in Chile in connection with the FDA detection of crystal violet in one of 12 samples from one container with 16,743 Kg of product between 7.5 and 8.5 oz.

After tracing the origin of the questioned fish, Sernapesca mapped out that the salmon in the detained container was farmed in the cages 101, 106, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208 and 201 belonging to the farming site Apiao. Likewise, Sernapesca established that those fish were processed in the Pesquera del Mar Antártico processing plant in Puerto Montt, which was inspected in July 2013 as part of a monthly quality assurance inspection programme.

Sernapesca decided to block the exports of the remaining stocks of product in Marine Harvest Chile, while performs all the appropriate inspections and obtains the traceability of the questioned product in the freshwater stage, in order to confirm or refuse the usage of crystal violet. Likewise, Sernapesca has requested samplings to those fish feed used in the fattening stage of the questioned fish.

According to Sernapesca, the Chilean regulation establishes that if a company is proven to have used forbidden drugs or chemicals in aquaculture it should pay a fine that ranges between US$ 40,000 and US$ 240,500.

Zero farms with ISA virus in Chile Chile: The Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) has not been detected in Chilean salmon farms since May 2013. The three sites affected with pathogenic strains of the virus in the second quarter of this year are currently complying with a sanitary fallowing period.

Moreover, the farming site King -belonging to Multiexport, will conclude its three-month fallowing period next Sunday August 4th, according to a report recently published by the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Sernapesca.

In turn, the farming sites Garrao and Izaza, which belong to Los Fiordos and Camanchaca, will finish with their fallowing periods in September 8th and October 18th, respectively.

The isolates found last April in the farming sites Garrao and King correspond to the pathogenic strain HPR-3, while in Izaza there was found the pathogenic strain HPR-14 in May this year.

Deal Cooke-Invermar did not succeed Chile: Andrés Parodi, general manager of Invermar (photo), explained that the purchase agreement held with Salmones Cupquelán has been cancelled since the conditions required to sell the company to the Chilean subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture were not achieved.

Just after the deadline established by Invermar to know the creditor banks decision regarding the financing proposal of this purchase process, on July 24th, the general manager of Invermar , Andrés Parodi, informed that the purchase and sale of shares contract held with Salmones Cupquelán SA, dated on April 3rd this year, was cancelled because not all the conditions required by the contract were met by both parties.

Allegedly, the banking decision was the “stumbling block” impeding Cupquelán from closing the deal with Invermar.

According to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, sources close to the process said that the banks BCI and Itau (two of the twelve creditors banks) did not signed the authorization for this operation, because they are not willing to write off one third of the debts of Invermar, among other issues. Anyway, Cooke Aquaculture would be still interested in acquiring assets in the local salmon industry.

Sernapesca discards presence of crystal violet in processing plant Chile: Sernapesca tests have ruled out the presence of crystal violet in the processing plant Pesquera Mar Antártico, belonging to Marine Harvest Chile.

The National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Sernapesca, informed that eight samples of salmon muscle with skin were taken from the processing plant in order to detect crystal violet (CV), leuco crystal violet (LCV), tetracycline, erythromycin, malachite green, leuco malachite green and florfenicol. The diagnostic lab commissioned for these tests reported negative results for all these analytes, the Chilean newspaper La Segunda reports. Moreover, Sernapesca commented that these samples were not taken from those fish detained by the FDA due to alleged presence of crystal violet.

After tracing the origin of the questioned fish, Sernapesca mapped out that the questioned salmon was farmed in the farming site Apiao. Likewise, Sernapesca established that those fish were processed in the Pesquera del Mar Antártico processing plant in Puerto Montt, which was inspected in July 2013 as part of a monthly quality assurance inspection programme.

Currently, there are some ongoing tests with fish farmed in Apiao and other farming sites belonging to Marine Harvest Chile as well, in order to compare all samples.

Results of these tests will be known the second week of August. Meanwhile, Sernapesca has requested a clarification from the FDA regarding whether the compound found in salmon from Marine Harvest was crystal violet or leuco crystal violet -which is produced after salmon consumes CV.