Tasmanian fish farmers hit out at Chile salmon imports

Producers are asking the Australian Government to urgently review the move, warning that the Australian industry’s cherished disease-free status was being put at risk. 

The first consignment of salmon products from Chile arrived a few days ago.

Luke Martin, CEO of Salmon Tasmania said: “While Tasmania had strict biosecurity controls on salmon products entering the State, there have been many examples of biosecurity breaches across state borders, with devastating consequences for Australian industry. 

“This is as serious as it gets for us – Tasmanians have carefully grown our own home-grown salmon industry, free of disease, and we are globally renowned for the quality of our products. 

“The Chilean salmon industry has a very high prevalence of serious pathogens that are not present in Australia, and we must maintain the very highest risk management approach to protect Australian industry and Tasmanian jobs. 

He added: “It doesn’t matter what biosecurity controls we have in place in Tasmania, it only takes one person carelessly crossing Bass Strait to put our whole industry at risk.

“We’ve seen examples with other seafood sectors, where the decision to allow imports has quickly seen new pathogens spread across local producers, including the White Spot Syndrome that was brought into Australia through raw prawn imports and has now spread right throughout our domestic prawn farmers.

“We have written to the Australian Government asking them to review the decision to allow Chilean imports into Australia. The risks are simply too great”.