International conference started this Tuesday in Puerto Montt. The event continues today Wednesday and tomorrow Thursday in Puerto Varas.

With a clear message to resume the path of promoting an activity key to the country, aquaculture, this Tuesday 2nd of September the InnAqua conference began in the Los Lagos region. And indeed, several of the speakers on the first day of the event (which took place at the Cuidad Puerto de Empormontt Linking Center) agreed on the need to once again generate initiatives that boost this productive sector.

One of them was the mayor of Puerto Montt, Rodrigo Wainraihgt, who is leading the Puerto Montt Innova plan, which seeks, among other things, to create the first Technology Park of the commune, focused on the circular economy.

The mayor highlighted the coordination achieved between the public sector, the private sector, academia and civil society, under a quadruple helix model, with the aim of transforming the capital of the Los Lagos region into an innovation hub, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing as key tools for the future, emphasizing the realization of InnAqua as an industrial innovation driver.

Soon after, the mayor of Puerto Varas, Tomás Gárate, emphasized the fact of working together with his counterpart from Puerto Montt on initiatives that enhance both communes as regional development poles. Additionally, he recalled his strong family ties to the salmon farming industry and how he lived through the years of the ISA virus crisis, a period that left important lessons for the entire sector.

Meanwhile, the president of SalmonChile, Arturo Clément; the executive president of the Salmon Council, Loreto Seguel; and the undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Julio Salas, highlighted both the importance of aquaculture, as well as the holding of this type of event, to promote innovation in the sector.

Relaunch roadmap

Already in the exhibitors' panel, Eduardo Bitrán, in his capacity as former Minister of Public Works and former Executive Vice President of CORFO, went further and made a criticism of the lack of long-term vision, both of public institutions and also of the business sector, in the stagnation of the growth of national salmon farming. The former president of Fundación Chile also showed the achievements of initiatives such as the Strategic Program Mesoregional Sustainable Salmon of Corfo, which between the years 2016 and 2022 managed to leverage resources for innovation, mainly by suppliers of the industry.

Bitran also stated that coordination failures persist which are difficult to resolve "due to the chronic social lack of capital", indicating that "there is a short-term vision of business actors, exacerbated by the perception of political-regulatory risk". Finally, the former minister called for relaunching a public-private alliance, with a roadmap towards the year 2040, emphasizing that salmon farming must be promoted as cluster virtuoso exporter. In his view, within 15 years, the volume of exports from the sector should be doubled, with figures exceeding US$16,000 million in exports abroad. On the other hand, he emphasized that investment should be made in the promotion of innovation for productivity, sustainability and integrated territorial development. For Bitrán, it is vital to develop an export industry of goods and services for global aquaculture. with figures above US$1,000 million in exports, by Chilean aquaculture providers.

Positive balance

Once the first day of InnAqua 2025 had ended, Adolfo Alvial, executive director of the Club Innovación Acuícola, the organizing entity of the international event, highlighted the success of the opening day, which had the presence of more than 400 people.

"It was highlighted the importance of resuming investment and funding in the industry, which will be channeled as there are clear rules," adding that another aspect discussed on the first day was "the importance of informing decision makers and the public properly, with transparency and hopefully with testimonies from ordinary people. There is a story from ordinary people that is more powerful than that which specialists can produce."

Finally, Alvial specified that it is important to highlight that innovation has many opportunities, with funding systems and funds to boost startups, even from the World Bank. But one has to be patient and persist, in order to be successful.

It should be noted that the first session of InnAqua 2025 was called "Trends and sustainability in aquaculture" and featured presentations by Harrison Karisa, from the World Bank; Eduardo Bitrán; Daniela Allerbon, from the biotechnology company Aquit; and Jeanne McKnight, president of the Aquaculture Innovation Alliance (AIA).