Chile started cultivating salmon at the end of the 70’s. The salmon industry is thereby relatively young. Until 1991 Chile didn’t produce more than 10.000 tons per year, but nowadays they produce more than 550.000 ton salmon, and is after Norway the biggest salmon producer in the world.
Unfortunately, this impressive growth was not supported by policy, research and supervision to protect the sector from biological risks. In 2007 there was an outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA). To combat this disease antibiotics usage was increased. Now the usage of antibiotics is still extremely high.
Salmon is not indigenous to Chile and escapes are therefore a big concern. Another big concern is the feed which doesn’t use sustainable ingredients.