Activists blame aquaculture firm Mowi Chile for salmon fraud
In a statement, a group of salmon farming opponents accuse Mowi, the pioneering aquaculture company in Chile, of having falsified the numbers so that the re-capture appears larger than it actually is. The claim is that local fishermen are paid for more fish than they have actually managed to catch — as long as they have accepted the bills.
«We will not accept one of the biggest frauds in the history of Chilean salmon farming», says the statement signed by, among others, Juan Carlos Cárdenas, who heads the Centro Ecocéanos environmental foundation.
With him he has 30 other individuals, environmental groups, local fisheries teams, small indigenous groups and leaders of indigenous groups.
«We have no comment on this press release, but we are obviously following the current regulations,» Mowi’s communications director Ola Helge Hjetland replied in an email to IntraFish.
The question was whether Mowi in Chile has cheated with receipts to keep the concession.
The call for the boycott states: «We urge citizens and non-governmental organizations, restaurants, the trade industry, national consumers and consumers abroad not to buy chemically produced salmon from industry because of devastating consequences in terms of environment, health and working conditions. The aquaculture industry is violating workers’ rights and communities in southern Chile.»
Greenpeace Chile uses the escape as an example that aquaculture production must not be allowed to grow, without the authorities having the capacity to control the activity properly.
The statement that IntraFish has received from Ecocéanos does not take into account that the salmon industry has created employment and economic growth in the southern parts of the country, which have traditionally been low-income districts.
The industry has created over 40,000 small and medium-sized companies that provide equipment and services. The industry has employed 21,000 directly and 61,000 indirectly, according to the website of the industry organization Salmon Chile.
Fuente: Samudra ALert – ICSF.net
19 de junio de 2020
https://www.icsf.net//samudra-news-alert/articledetail/60656.html?language=EN
