Chilean salmon producer Camanchaca said it will shift part of its production from the Los Lagos region to the Aysen region of southern Chile after shareholders approved a $30 million (€25.9 million) capital raise.
The financing was approved at an extraordinary general meeting on Monday as the company seeks to undo damage to production caused by high oxygen levels and algal blooms that impacted its farms earlier this year in the Los Lagos region.
The algal blooms, which affected Camanchaca's sites in the Renihue and Comau fjords in the Los Lagos region, contributed $3.1 million (€2.7 million) in EBITDA losses, the company said.
In total, three of the company’s sites in the Renihue Fjord were affected by blooms throughout Chile's summer months, which also impacted biomass growth and led to lower harvest weights.
Camanchaca said as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of a repetition it will cut the amount of salmon placed in cages in Los Lagos, replacing them with fish at its Aysen production sites.
Under the plan, it will install technology at production sites aimed at preventing these type of events from affecting production.
The changes are part of the company's plan to reach 70,000 metric tons of production by the middle of the decade. Last year the company harvested 53,000 metric tons of salmon.
Looking further ahead, Camanchaca CEO Ricardo Garcia said salmon demand remains robust.
"Not only have people returned to restaurants and hotels, but they are now eating more salmon at home, and the reflection of that is that in the last few months we have seen the highest prices in history," he said in a statement announcing the funding approval.
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