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CHILE: Exposing the Salmon Industry

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Oct 11 2006 (IPS) - More than 30 environmental and consumer organisations in six countries that produce farmed salmon, including Chile, have launched a global week of action to raise awareness on abusive practices by the salmon industry.

The Oct. 9-14 Farmed Salmon Exposed campaign accuses the industry of polluting waters, decimating fish species used to feed the salmon, and – in Chile – providing unhealthy working conditions and low wages to workers.

The campaign, coordinated by civil society organisations in the world’s main salmon-producing and consumer countries, will include daily actions in Belgium, Canada, Chile, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States, to inform the public about the environmental, social and health problems associated with salmon farming.

“Globalisation has created enormous economic opportunities for our country. However, this bonanza has not been accompanied by the expansion of workers’ rights and environmental protection,” said Rodrigo Pizarro, executive director of the non-governmental Fundación Terram which is leading the week of action in Chile.

“The salmon industry must move towards higher standards of labour and environmental practices,” added Pizarro, who announced on Tuesday the actions that will be carried out in Chile, accompanied by Bart Naylor, a member of the Pure Salmon Campaign and representative of the non-governmental National Environmental Trust (NET) based in Washington, DC.

Salmon is not a native species in Chile, but was introduced for farming in the 1980s. Today it is the second most important Chilean export, after copper, and exports are expected to grow by around 20 percent in the next few years.

Naylor said a survey carried out in the United States revealed that most consumers were unaware that the salmon they bought came from Chile, and when they learned about the problems associated with its production, many decided to stop buying it.

The activist told IPS that only in Chile does the salmon industry provide poor working conditions. In the other countries, the main concern is environmental consequences. “There are parliamentary committees investigating this issue in Canada and Norway,” where calls have been voiced to close fjords to salmon farming, for their environmental protection, Naylor said.

Pizarro will be presenting a summary of conditions in the Chilean farming industry to the Canadian parliamentary committee in Vancouver on Oct. 19.

During his visit to Chile, Naylor will meet co-governing Christian Democracy Party Deputy Patricio Vallespín, who presides over a parliamentary commission studying the salmon industry in this country. The commission was created after a series of public reports of abusive labour practices.

In Santiago, the campaign kicked off with photos published in a number of regional and national newspapers, with legends describing labour practices, environmental degradation and food security issues related to salmon farming.

Publicity posters show the four members of a Chilean rock band, Chancho en Piedra, seated at a long table piled with salmon. The images bring to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of “The Last Supper”. The legend is simple: “Let salmon not be our last supper; Let’s globalise rights, too”.

At the foot of the ads, designed by Fundación Terram under the auspices of the international humanitarian organisation Oxfam, there are three messages to the public.

“Did you know that the men and women who work for the salmon industry in Chile have longer working hours and earn as much as eight times less than their counterparts in Norway?” is the first question.

In Chile, employees of salmon farms, 40 percent of which are run by foreign firms, earn an average 200,000 pesos (just over 400 dollars) a month.

Another question is “Did you know that the environmental impact of salmon farming is equivalent to pouring organic waste from seven million people into the waters off the southern coasts of Chile?”

The third message refers to the depredation of other fish species associated with the industry: “Did you know that in a world where hunger still exists, producing one kilo of salmon takes nine kilos of jurel or sardines?”

The campaign is also distributing informational brochures that look like menus, with gifts of smoked salmon, to editors in the media and members of parliament. One of the entrées is “Bite-sized morsels of Chilean salmon in flaky pastry with capers, filleted by women working long hours standing up, in cold temperatures, doing repetitive work.”

The executive director of Fundación Terram will hold a press conference Thursday at a restaurant in Washington, to which U.S. consumer organisations interested in learning about how Chilean salmon is produced will be invited.

Pizarro also announced that TV stations in the U.S. will broadcast a video on “The hidden costs of salmon farming in Chile”, made by the Labour and Environmental Observatory of Chiloé, which started operating three months ago in southern Chile.

One of the cases presented in the documentary, which will also be shown in Chile, is that of a woman who worked on a salmon farm for 11 years, and was fired for refusing to work at night for certified medical reasons. The woman’s severance pay was the derisory sum of 6,000 pesos – about 12 dollars.

Pizarro told IPS that these actions have three main objectives in Chile: to pressure the salmon industry to comply with labour and environmental laws, to extend and improve workers’ rights so that they approach international standards, and to get a land-use law adopted that will allow better planning of the use of coastal areas.

The activist said salmon companies are increasingly aware of these problems, but have not yet changed their practices.

Last year, Chile exported 383,700 tons of salmon, bringing in 1.72 billion dollars, 20 percent more than in 2004, according to industry sources. This year revenues are expected to reach two billion dollars.

The biggest importers of Chilean salmon are Japan and the United States.

The United States and Japan are the world’s leaders in the harvest of wild salmon, while Norway and Chile are close competitors for the top spot in raising farmed salmon, responsible for 38.7 and 37.9 percent, respectively, of global production.