Salmon was transported by LATAM Cargo Group from Santiago to Melbourne, Australia, being the first time a Chilean salmon lands in that country.
After several months of preparation and definition of the rigorous protocols by the competent authorities, this Monday the first shipment of Chilean salmon was embarked for the Australian market. It is a shipment of fresh chilled salmon fillets, exported by two leading national companies. This important milestone marks the start of our products exports to Australia, opening new opportunities to position the quality and excellence of national production abroad.
To achieve this significant achievement, an extensive and rigorous audit process was carried out led by the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Sernapesca), with the valuable support of ProChile, through which the compliance with the requirements established by the demanding Australian market was verified, both for its health control system and the safety of the products intended for export.
It was like this that, at the end of September, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), notified our country of the official recognition for the export of processed salmonids from Chile to Australia, setting Sernapesca as the authorized Competent Authority for its sanitary and safety certification.
Soledad Tapia Almonacid, National Director of Sernapesca, valued the milestone that represents for Chile the start of exports of salmonids to Australia. "After a long process of audit of the inspection, control and certification systems that Sernapesca maintains throughout the salmonid value chain, the fact that the first exports of salmonids to this country have been successfully carried out, means a great support for the entire value chain of salmon farming and also to the work carried out by our Service, as the competent body for certification and facilitation of exports," said the authority.
In turn, the International Director of ProChile, Natalia Arcos, stated that "This milestone is of great importance for salmon exports, as it opens the doors to a market of more than 26 million inhabitants, which means good potential for our positioning; additionally, it generates diversification for the shipments of this product and new opportunities for Chilean companies in the sector."
Cristian Rodríguez, Seremi of Economy of the Metropolitan Region, stressed that “This is the first shipment of fresh salmon that we are sending to Australia today, which was not open to the Chilean economy for this type of product and this is a very relevant milestone because there are many more companies that will be able to export to this market that is very attractive, and this means that there will be more investment and there will be more investment. jobs and dynamism in the economy at a global level.”
“As Camanchaca is proud to participate in this milestone that represents the first shipment, we expect, from many, of salmon to Australia, which is a tremendously demanding market, and this shows that Chile has an enormous capacity and potential to arrive the most demanding markets with a sustainable product and a healthy protein,” said Mario Aguilera, Corporate Manager of Logistics and Commercial Operations of Camanchaca.
Raimundo Nogueira, Product Manager of AquaChile, added that “For us, this milestone with the first charge to Australia is super important because we believe that there is a very relevant market in that country, where we can enter not only with Atlantic salmon, but also with the Pacific salmon, so we are very happy with this milestone and being able to count on the logistics that we have here at the airport.”
Claudio Torres is LATAM Cargo’s commercial director for South America. The group leads salmon shipments out of Chile, handling 49% of this year’s total, or more than 79 thousand tonnes. Torres said, “Today we celebrate a milestone for Chilean aquaculture: the first shipment of fresh salmon to Australia. At LATAM Cargo Group, we are committed to finding specialised solutions for our customers, adapting to their needs. This achievement is testimony to that. We will continue to work to bring more opportunities to our customers and to continue to bring Chilean salmon to the rest of the world.”
Chile currently exports frozen and fresh salmon to 76 countries. The United States, Brazil, Russia, China and the European Union are its main markets. Salmon exports exceeded US$6,000 million in 2023 and have reached US$4,100 million so far this year.
Australia is currently one of the destination markets for national hydrobiological products. Among the most prominent exports in 2023 are fish oils, with a volume of 2,760 tons, and frozen bivalve molluscs, which reached 758 tons.
