July 2021: “Our sustainability strategy and its five pillars is our roadmap.”

During 2020, significant progress was also achieved implementing our community engagement strategy. We arranged over 140 activities in over ten local communities. We socially invested in "Sustainable Schools".

Salmones Camanchaca published its 2020 Sustainability Report in mid-June. It reports the company’s progress with the five pillars of its sustainability model, which are healthy and nutritious food, healthy ecosystems, thriving communities, meaningful employment, and a profitable and responsible business.

The company reported that during 2020 it progressed and consolidated the Salmones Camanchaca sustainability roadmap. This strategy “has enabled it to systematically progress initiatives that address its high priority material issues”.

Accordingly, AQUA talked with the CEO of Salmones Camanchaca, Manuel Arriagada about these achievements and other issues, such as the company’s response to the pandemic, the effect on the business of the algae bloom in the Comau Fjord this year, and the outlook for the sector. He now believes that the situation appears to be more stable, which would allow a degree of normality to return.

Salmones Camanchaca recently published its 2020 Sustainability Report. What were the company’s main achievements during that period?

During 2020 we progressed and consolidated the Salmones Camanchaca sustainability roadmap based on our five strategic pillars, which are healthy and nutritious food, healthy ecosystems, thriving communities, meaningful employment and a profitable and responsible business.

The main milestones included creating a Sustainability Committee, which is responsible for driving strategy implementation. We signed a contract with Colbún in June 2020 to supply the company’s processing plants with electricity from fully renewable resources. This will reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by approximately 12%, which we have achieved almost two years ahead of our initial target. Our overall strategy is to become carbon neutral by 2025. Also, 52% of the biomass is certified as complying with the ASC standard. We reduced our antibiotic use by 3% and antiparasitic use by 7% per biomass with respect to 2019 in closed cycles.

During 2020, significant progress was also achieved implementing our community engagement strategy. We arranged over 140 activities in over ten local communities. We socially invested in “Sustainable Schools”, to support principals, teachers and families and ensure that their children’s education could continue during the pandemic. We implemented and widely published a formal channel for inquiries, complaints and suggestions in our local communities, which follows the associated global best practice.

There were other developments as well. We signed a sustainability agreement with our feed suppliers. The idea is that the feed they supply to their customers is produced from raw materials that have not contributed to the destruction of native forests anywhere on the planet. This must be verified by the corresponding certifications. This document also addresses other issues.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic hampered or deferred some of Salmones Camanchaca’s sustainability objectives? And how have you responded to this crisis?

It has not deferred any of our objectives. Every company has had to adjust its approach to working, in order to protect everyone. We implemented the “Caring Camanchaca” program to protect the health of our employees, their families and all those involved in the company. Our motto is that working at Camanchaca should be as safe as working at home. This has kept the company productively and commercially operational, due to hundreds of people who have worked with care and discipline to overcome the health challenges that we have faced in recent months.

We also implemented initiatives such as installing our own molecular laboratory at the Tomé processing plant in the Biobío Region, preventive PCR testing before starting shifts, and we trained employees as Covid monitors to ensure compliance with regulations and self-care standards.

According to the last report, 52% of the biomass at Salmones Camanchaca is certified to ASC standards. Will you continue this initiative?

Salmones Camanchaca focuses on providing an excellent product that complies with all the principles and requirements of the national and international standards that apply to the facilities within our entire value chain.

The ASC standard was co-founded by WWF and is recognized as the world’s leading standard for sustainable salmon farming. Our company’s smolt production processes, all our marine grow-out sites and the chain of custody in our primary and secondary processes are independently audited to ensure that they all comply with this standard. This seal ensures that our production complies with the most demanding social, environmental and food safety standards.

We achieved ASC certification for 52% of the biomass harvested in 2020. However, we had to evaluate the long-term trend. Therefore, we calculated our ASC certified biomass using a rolling 24-month period based on the length of farming cycles, and we achieved certification for 34% of our biomass using this criterion.

Salmones Camanchaca’s compliance with the ASC standard is continually audited as it represents best practice. We have achieved first class results in all the areas evaluated by this certification.

Salmones Camanchaca has achieved a significant reduction in its use of antimicrobials and antiparasitics. How did you achieve this?

We are currently preparing an animal welfare policy based on global best practices and the latest scientific knowledge regarding salmon.  We have tackled this with a preventive strategy.

We are implementing best practices to reduce the use of antimicrobials. We are vaccinating all our stock with traditional and live vaccines. Our fish are fed functional diets that are protective, and we have developed various sanitation practices at our farming sites.

We decided to increase hydrogen peroxide treatments and reduce our use of antiparasitics in 2020, which was achieved using a barge exclusively dedicated to this task in the Los Lagos and Aysén Regions. A huge advantage of this treatment is that hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and oxygen shortly after contact with seawater. We are pleased because it is a good non-pharmacological treatment for sea lice as they affect our production, and it can also be used to treat gill pathologies. Hydrogen peroxide is kind to the environment, animal welfare and is aligned with Salmones Camanchaca’s sustainability strategy and current regulations.

We have implemented thermal systems and we signed a wellboat contract with the ORCA shipping company to perform closed environment treatments in 2022 including non-pharmacological treatments in fresh water and mechanical systems

This is a Norwegian ship fitted with state-of-the-art technology for transporting live fish.

Camanchaca suffered the consequences of an intense algal bloom this year. How do you assess this situation looking back, and what will be the effects on the company’s results?

The harmful algal bloom in the Comau Fjord in April 2021 tested our ability to respond to an unprecedented natural emergency. Now that the emergency is over, I can say that we have learned that natural events can occur that are far greater than we could have expected, as in this case. All of Salmones Camanchaca’s action plans have been approved by the authority. We had fishing vessels available in the area to deal with the blooms and a team of experienced and committed professionals. We have learned valuable lessons that have made us a better company.

The impact has been to reduce our volumes harvested and sold, increase harvesting and processing costs, and reduce forecast harvest volumes for the remainder of the year.

However, a better performance is expected in the second half of this year. Prices have risen and believe they will remain high due to robust demand and reductions in Chilean supplies.  We expect to finish harvesting higher-cost fish due to the Reñihue bloom, by the end of the second quarter, so we are expecting costs to return to normal in the second half of the year.

What is the medium and long term outlook for Salmones Camanchaca? How do you see the company’s future performance within a changing scenario caused by the global pandemic, climate change and the development of a new constitution for Chile?

We know that these are difficult times in Chile and worldwide. This is a period of economic, political, environmental and social change. Salmones Camanchaca has reiterated its commitment to listen, learn and innovate for the benefit of sustainable salmon farming, as we are convinced that this is the only way to care for the environment.

The pandemic did not affect the company operationally, but it did affect demand, as more than 50% of salmon is consumed in restaurants. We migrated sales to the retail channel, as the consumption of salmon as healthy protein has increased considerably within households. Today, we can say that we are getting back to normal.