Chile’s salmon farms hope for calmer waters

Chile is the world’s second-largest exporter of farmed salmon, and the biggest supplier to the US. In the south of the country a dispute continues over the large number of salmon farms that are located in supposedly protected areas.

The port city of Puerto Montt, more than 1,000km (600 miles) south of Chile’s capital Santiago, is at the heart of the country’s farmed Atlantic salmon industry.

At a processing facility on the outskirts of town workers kitted out in white suits, hairnets, facemasks, and blue plastic gloves and boots prepare fresh and smoked salmon for export to the US and Japan.

In a spacious meeting room, Fracisco Lobos, the chief corporate officer for the plant’s owner – salmon-exporter Multi X – explains how farming the fish has transformed the south of Chile.

“Salmon’s been part of this region’s industrial revolution,” he says. “There used to be a lot of poverty in the region, and now many people earn more than in other parts of Chile.

“Because of the industry a lot of support services have sprung up, which benefit the families living here, and people have moved here from other parts of the country for work.”

Atlantic salmon are not native to Chile. Instead, eggs were brought over to Chile from the UK at the end of the 19th Century and released into rivers, lakes and the sea to grow into fish for recreational fishing.

Farming the fish in netted, offshore pens then started in the 1970s, before growing substantially ever since. There were 1,343 active salmon farms across southern Chile at the end of last year.

In 2024 as a whole, Chile exported 782,076 tonnes of salmon and trout, according to the latest annual figures from the Chile’s National Customs Service. The vast majority of this is salmon, but the two fish are counted together in the official data.

This was worth $6.4bn (£4.8bn), making it Chile’s third-biggest export after copper in first place and fresh fruit. It also means that Chile’s salmon exports are only surpassed by Norway’s.

Some 86,000 people now work directly or indirectly for Chile’s farmed salmon industry, according to trade body Salmón Chile. The farms stretch from the Biobío region, which is around 500km south of Santiago, right down to the Magallanes region in the far Patagonian south of the country, and more than 2,000km away from the capital.

With global demand for farmed salmon due to grow by 40% by 2033, according to one report, Chilean producers are keen to increase their production. However, it actually fell slightly last year.

Salmón Chile’s chairman, Arturo Clements, says the government needs to do more to help the industry expand.

“For us it’s been very difficult to grow, because we have too many regulations, and we have too many conflicts regarding the use of the sea,” he says. “What we need is to define a long-term strategy regarding salmon farming.”