2024-07-11 17:31:55
At the beginning of the day, the challenges and opportunities of national salmon farming were addressed and a panel discussion was held on the economic development and social well-being of the productive sector.
More than 1,200 people came to the Frutillar Lake Theatre to be part of the first edition of the “Salmon Summit 2024: Boosting Chilean salmon farming by 2050”, an initiative organized by SalmonChile that seeks to understand different perspectives on the productive sector, in order to contribute to the development of public policies in the future.
At the beginning of the day, the president of the salmon farming association, Arturo Clément, gave an account of the path taken by salmon farming in the last 40 years, reaching its present state. “Chile’s second largest export sector and the main activity in the southern region, generating well-being and opportunities for its people.”
“We want to project ourselves and grow responsibly by 2050. We do not want our activity to disappear or diminish. We want to be heard, to dialogue and, in this way, contribute to the growth of Chile. Unfortunately, there are many negative signals, a lack of confidence, of understanding and knowing what we do. We need certainties to be able to move forward. There is a lack of understanding of the value of our industry, there is disregard for people from the south and we are being suffocated by the competition,” said Arturo Clément.
The first block of the day then began with a Keynote speech of the Former President of the Republic, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, where he addressed the challenges and the opportunities salmon farming, pointing out that “the salmon industry has been the engine of growth in southern Chile over the last 30 years. Without receiving a single subsidy from the State. It has been done by the region, the businessmen, the workers, the institutions, everything. Without a penny from the State. That is what is important (…) And are we going to stop it, are we going to stop it, are we going to complicate it? If what it needs is to double over the next 30 years. It is capable of doing it. It has the people to do it. It has the investments to do it.” Likewise, and at the end of his speech, The former president stated that “we cannot accept that this be destroyed with a bad Aquaculture law.”
Salmon farming, economic development and social welfare
Later, the director of Studies and Projects of SalmonChile, Marcela Bravomoderated a panel to discusson salmon farming, economic development and social welfare, composed of the President of the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), Ricardo Mewes; the President of the National Evaluation and Productivity Commission, Raphael Bergoeing, and the President of the Business Council of System B Chile, Josefa Monge.
Regarding the development of salmon farming, the president of the CPC, Ricardo Mewes, indicated that “the State has to be a partner of the private sector. I have said this on several occasions today. Instead of creating and putting obstacles to development, to entrepreneurship, or dealing with basically four productive sectors, which are tremendously relevant, there is no doubt about that – which are green hydroxide, lithium, copper, rare earths – we also have to worry about those other sectors that need the impetus, the support, the backing of the government, so that all the productive sectors of the country can go out and export and face the great competition that we have, a product of the trade agreements that Chile has signed.”
Similarly, he continued: “And therefore, we have to be a whole: the country, the government, the businessmen, the civil society, all of us rowing in one direction, and this is done together, as former President Frei said, in a powerful public-private partnership, which allows us to go and conquer the markets that Chile, moreover, permanently competes in.”
“It has a role in terms of looking beyond the cage itself. And the State has a fundamental responsibility regarding the discussion of permits, for example, which has been given to generate a regulatory framework that allows investment to exist and be an investment that also converses with the public interest. I believe that this can happen and I believe that we are moving in that direction. And it is instances like these that allow different actors, from different places, to participate by contrasting opinions in order to improve regulation and achieve that this is a truly sustainable industry and continues to contribute, not only as it has done until now, but also in the rest of the country in the future”, highlighted the president of the National Evaluation and Productivity Commission, Raphael Bergoeing.
The economist added that a national policy for the development of this productive sector is required in the long term, “But it is the State that has to set the boundaries and it is the State that has to, therefore, call upon the actors who know about this industry, in Chile and abroad, and also the scientists who look at the evidence, in order to commit to a national development policy that is sustainable for the industry.”
Finally, the president of the Business Council of Sistema B Chile, Josefa Monge, said that “we are very pleased that such a large industry, with so much potential and so many challenges, is asking itself questions about how it wants to see itself in the coming years and taking on the challenges through dialogue, without excluding anyone. We see here people from the union world, the environmental world, the political world, things that I find very interesting and very valuable.”
Monge added that “Companies that are not thinking about their circularity, their forms of regeneration, all the new forms of sustainability that come from it, are late and will not survive until 2050. That is what we are going to ask of all companies.”