Chile: Unrest halts salmon processing in Quellón
Non-violent evictions of workers by protesters and threats of damage to facilities yesterday brought Chilean salmon processing plants to a halt in Quellón, a port city and commune in southern Chiloé Island in the Los Lagos region.
Processing plants owned by AquaChile, Marine Farm, Yadran and Salmones Austral were among those that received threats of possible damage. In some of them, protesters evicted the workforce in the early hours of Monday.
Gastón Cortez, general manager of Salmones Austral, told Fish Farming Expert’s Chilean sister site, Salmonexpert.cl: “We were not operating because we saw the risk involved in carrying it out. The companies in the area are not active, waiting for everything to calm down and for the road to San Antonio, which is blocked by protesters, to open.”
Widespread unrest
Last week process workers at Yadran and Salmones Austral joined a nationwide 24-hour strike held as part of widespread social unrest in Chile about increasing inequality.
Curfews imposed by the authorities and large-scale disruption to road transport have also impacted of the salmon industry’s ability to process and export its fish.
The protests initially began over a now-suspended price hike for tickets for the underground rail system in the capital, Santiago, but have expanded throughout the country, revealing anger among ordinary Chileans who feel they have been excluded from the nation’s economic rise.
Reforms promised
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has promised social and economic reforms to tackle issues at the heart of the unrest, including pension increases, affordable medical insurance, lowering the prices of medicines and stabilising electricity prices.
Yesterday he replaced his Cabinet, including the Ministers of Interior, Finance and Labour, but it has not brought an end to the protests, which are in some cases violent.
Twenty people have died during the unrest, some trapped in burning buildings set alight during demonstrations.
