Christian Molinari

Christian Molinari

Contributing Editor

A native of San Francisco, Christian Molinari has lived and worked in Chile for over 20 years, after having arrived in Santiago as a volunteer and falling in love with the culture and its people. He covered business news in Latin America for over a decade, worked in communications at IBM Chile, and currently freelances in strategic communications and reporting.

Published on
April 17, 2023

Ecuador’s shrimp industry has sustained solid growth over the past years, solidifying its position as the number one supplier to China, providing roughly 70 percent of the Asian giant’s imports. It has also  lead as the number one supplier to Europe and, in the United States, is biting at the heels of the shrimp powerhouse of India.

That growth has been buoyed by a national strategy to fortify local operations while diversifying

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Published on
April 12, 2023

Peru’s Production Ministry (PRODUCE) has traditionally opened the anchovy fishing season for the north-central zone in the days following Easter break, and the country’s fishing companies are eagerly awaiting the launch after only catching 80 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) in the previous season.

The country’s anchovy fishery, which targets both Engraulis ringens and Anchoa nasus, is the largest by volume in

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Published on
April 11, 2023

Isidoro Quiroga, the former head of Puerto Varas, Chile-based Australis Seafoods, has gone on the offensive after being accused of fraud by the company's new ownership group.

Australis was sold to Chinese foodservice giant Joyvio in 2018 for USD 921 million (EUR 850 million). In March 2023, Joyvio announced a plan to file a USD 1.22 billion (EUR 1.13 billion) lawsuit against Quiroga, seeking the return of its investment plus USD 300 million

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Published on
April 10, 2023

Los Ángeles, Chile-based salmon farmer Salmones Austral has opened a cutting-edge recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) at its Los Arrayanes farming center.

The facility, situated in the Reloncavi estuary in the municipality of Cochamó in southern Chile’s Los Lagos region, cost an estimated USD 35 million (EUR 32.5 million) to build. Salmones Austral said it has a number of innnovations that will change the way it farms

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Published on
April 5, 2023

Chile’s government is stepping up its regulation of the country’s USD 6.6 billion (EUR 6.1 billion) a year salmon sector.

In recent months, the government has stepped up its regulatory oversight of overproduction and fish escapes across the country's salmon-farming industry.

Chile’s Superintendency of the Environment (SMA) has been more-actively investigating the country's salmon farmers and the amount of fish they are

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Published on
April 3, 2023

An earthquake that rocked Ecuador on 18 March has now been followed by several days of extreme rain and flooding that is expected to continue for several days, affecting the country’s multibillion-dollar shrimp sector.

The quake, which measured 6.5 on the Richter scale, caused the partial collapse of shrimp farms walls in the Bravito, Estero Huaylá, and Puerto Bolívar sectors, located in El Oro province. Ecuador’s

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Published on
March 28, 2023

Chinese foodservice giant Joyvio plans to file a USD 1.22 billion (EUR 1.13 billion) suit against the former owner of Puerto Varas, Chile-based Australis Seafoods, which it purchased in 2018 for USD 921 million (EUR 850 million).

Joyvio, a subsidiary of Legend Holdings which also owns the computer giant Lenovo, has accused businessman Isidoro Quiroga of allegedly withholding information regarding overproduction at the company’s farming

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Published on
March 21, 2023

Puerto Montt, Chile-based Ventisqueros was recently reported to be for sale, with several parties expressing interest in buying the company.

Ventisqueros has its own Atlantic and coho salmon operations in Southern Chile, employs approximately 1,400 people, and has annual salmonproduction of roughly 45,000 metric tons (MT). As reported by La Tercera, Dutch bank Rabobank led first-round talks with interested bidders that included an unnamed

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Published on
March 16, 2023

José Antonio Camposano, executive president of Ecuador’s National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA), recently said the country’s shrimp farmers had a challenging year, despite record numbers in shrimp production and exports.

Rabobank’s latest aquaculture report, “What to Expect in the Aquaculture Industry in 2023,” predicted the global shrimp supply  will continue on its positive trajectory. The report

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Published on
February 27, 2023

Ecuador’s shrimp industry is a rising economic star both in the country and globally. The sector now produces more than USD 5 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) in annual exports and has solidified its position as the country’s second-largest industry after oil, building upon five decades of investments in infrastructure, genetics, and biosecurity.

On the surface, it would seem that in 2022, Ecuador’s shrimp sector continued along that

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