Putting people in the picture about salmon farming
A campaign to promote the delivery of information about Chilean salmon farming to communities and the industry’s workers has been launched during Aquasur, the southern hemisphere’s biggest aquaculture trade fair.
Chilean Salmon, part of everyone is a joint initiative between feed producer Cargill, website and magazine Salmonexpert and the government’s Mesoregional Strategic Program (PEM) Sustainable Salmon.
The first action of the campaign was the launch of an informative poster that contains facts about the health and environmental performance of the industry, the contribution to local finances generated by aquaculture licences in the south of the country and the superior efficiency of salmon farming in comparison to other industries producing animal protein for human consumption.
At the launch Harry Jürgensen, the mayor of one of Chile’s salmon farming regions, Los Lagos, told Salmonexpert that, “in any industry it is always important to be transparent”.
Proud of salmon regions
Jürgensen said he valued the campaign because it “seeks to inform the citizens of the salmon farming regions about the details of this industry so that we begin to feel proud of belonging to the regions where Chilean salmon is produced”.
He also called on the industry to move forward in an improvement of the environmental standards of its operations.
“The communities nowadays must be integrated and know what happens with the industry,” added Jürgensen. “The corporate social responsibility must be direct and profound, in addition to a bidirectional path in the sense of capturing the requirements and opinions of the communities. That is the way to consolidate a competitive and sustainable production over time.”
Arturo Clément, president of salmon producers’ organisation Salmonchile, said work was ongoing to reduce the use of antibiotics by the industry.
“There are investments from the union (Salmonchile) regarding the management of diseases, and this is added to consortiums and companies that are also working towards the same end. The amount of resources is never enough because it is a complex issue, but the effort is important,” he said.
Erich Guerrero, executive editor of Salmonexpert, which is owned by Fish Farming Expert’s parent company, Salmonview Media, said: “The campaign aims to create a new information platform, a new meeting point between the salmon industry and society in general and communities in particular.
“The idea is that the people of the industry in the first instance, and then the communities, can have access to real, verifiable and transparent reporting, so that they can create their own assessment of the salmon industry and that this also serves as a tool of greater identity for the people who are part of the sector.”
During Aquasur the campaign’s members will be distributing posters, badges and stickers to identify and promote information about the industry.
