Chile: Hopeful times
Chile’s salmon farming industry is expanding, driven by improved efficiency and management, though structural challenges may limit future growth.
According to a recent Chilean Salmon Council report, Q1 2026 saw production and exports rise. Exports reached 251,413 metric tonnes – a 20.7% increase from last year – and totalled US$1.9 billion (£1.4bn) in value, up 9.3%.
Loreto Seguel, Executive President of the Salmon Council, attributes this growth to better use of existing capacity rather than new facilities.
She says: “The Q1 2026 [figure] shows an industry which is regaining momentum, but doing so from its structural strength, from an ability to adapt and operate more effectively. This growth is not due to an expansion of production, but rather to more efficient management of the installed capacities, where process optimisation has ensured increased export volumes.”
Atlantic salmon leads the growth in exports, with an increase of 34.7% in volume, while coho salmon shows a 1.8% increase. The latter enjoys a particular demand in the Asian markets.
In terms of destinations, the United States remains the leading market, with 18% growth, followed by Brazil (where supplies grew by 22.3%) and Japan, which showed growth of about 5%. In contrast, Russia – the fourth largest market for Chilean salmon – recorded a 32% drop in export volume during the quarter. Finally, imports to China grew by more than 164% for the reporting period.
According to Seguel, at present, farmed salmon remains a strategic sector for the country’s economy (given the status of salmon as Chile’s second most exported product), however it still requires additional support including from the state, particularly the country’s newly elected government, in order to continue its growth.
In fact, the Chilean salmon farming sector showed remarkable growth rates during the 2000s, when the country had a good chance of overtaking Norway and becoming the world’s largest salmon producer. At that time, Chilean production was growing at record rates, and practically doubling every two years. However, that scenario changed drastically with the outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) in 2007. The crisis caused massive fish losses and forced implementation of sweeping regulatory reforms throughout the industry.
Chile has only recently managed to double its pre-crisis production levels. Furthermore, much of this recent growth has been driven by coho salmon rather than Atlantic salmon.
Despite the ongoing growth of the industry these days, many local fish farmers and analysts believe that the existing strict domestic legislation in the field of fish farming is holding the sector back. Their biggest concerns are related to the Lafkenche Law – a statute enacted in 2008 which establishes protection mechanisms for the coastal areas of indigenous peoples. This, the industry says, has added complexity and made access to new cultivation areas more difficult.
Currently, approximately 41% of Chile’s marine areas are under some form of protection, a figure that reaches roughly 60% in the regions where salmon production is currently concentrated. Due to this, according to farmers, very few new aquaculture concessions have been granted in the country since 2017.
That resulted in the fact that during the period of 2020-2025, the growth of salmon production in Chile was only 29,000 tonnes, compared to 469,000 tonnes during the period of 2010-2015. For comparison, Norway increased its output in the last five years by more than 327,000 tonnes.
A similar trend is observed in sea trout production. Chile was once the largest producer of this fish with an annual output of more than 100,000 tonnes. In recent years, however, production has fallen to only 50,000 tonnes, allowing Norway and other competitors to overtake Chile.
The only species showing solid growth was coho salmon although it remains a generally small segment of the industry with an annual output of 300,000 tonnes (although its production grew by about 120,000 tonnes in the last five years).
Still, according to Cristián Swett, CEO of Multi X, one of Chilean’s largest salmon producers, most of the country’s fish farmers expect the new national government of Chile will promote regulatory reforms aimed at providing greater legal certainty to producers and reducing the operational costs faced by farmers.
He says: “If those conditions materialise, Chile could once again position itself on a path of expansion. With social and political support returning, we believe Chile can resume growth.”
Particular hopes in the industry also rest on the National Reconstruction and Economic and Social Development Bill, which is currently being discussed in the Chilean Parliament and which should see measures adopted aimed at modernising regulations and simplifying relocation processes for the country’s salmon farming industry. On 20 May it was approved in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies and will soon be considered by the country’s Senate.
As part of the Bill, the industry will benefit from a special reconstruction fund, corporate tax cuts, streamlined environmental permitting processes, and additional measures aimed at unlocking investment opportunities in the sector.
Despite slower production growth, the Chilean Atlantic salmon industry has achieved serious biological improvements in recent years. For example, over the past five years Chile has achieved the highest harvest weight among major salmon producers, averaging 5.07-5.2 kg whole fish equivalent (WFE) along with similar smolt productivity of 4.5-4.6 kg WFE per smolt.
As Gorjan Nikolik, a senior analyst at Rabobank, also reported during the North Atlantic Seafood Forum, the sector also recorded lower mortality rates (10.5% in 2025 compared to 15% in Norway) and an economic feed conversion rate of 1.2-1.3. The reduction in mortality rate has been largely due to environmental factors, such as algal blooms and low oxygen levels.
Chile is doing a lot of things right. The question now is whether the aquaculture industry will win over enough hearts and minds to move forward substantially.
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