“No major salmon production area has tougher market conditions than Chile,” says Mowi CEO Ivan Vindheim.
“Chile mainly produces fillets for the US market sold through traditional fish dishes, which have been shut down in addition to the Horeca segment( hospitality sector: restaurants and hotels) In other words, Chile has lost their most important customer, does not have processing capacity, and as a result has had to put the fish on frozen stock,” says Vindheim to TDN Finans.
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To move the stock from ocean to land is no long term solution.
“Of course, when you store the fish, no money comes in. So it is also very challenging financially for the companies in Chile,” he says.
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Mowi has processing capacity in Chile, and did not increase their frozen storage in the first quarter of the year. All fish produced have been sold.