Marine Harvest Buys Majority Stake in Chile's Top Salmon Producer, AquaChile
Marine Harvest has struck a deal to acquire major Chilean salmon producer AquaChile. Under the agreement Marine Harvest will purchase about 43 percent of AquaChile with an option for it to buy no less than 55 percent of AquaChile’s shares beginning in June 2016. Combined production between the merged operations is estimated at 260,000 tons of salmon. "The merger between AquaChile and Marine Harvest Chile is in line with Marine Harvest's strategy of forming a world leading integrated protein group," said Marine Harvest Chairman's Ole-Eirik Lerøy.
Details of Starkist’s investment in Silver Bay Seafood have been revealed. Back in November Starkist’s parent company Dongwon, agreed to purchase a 12.5 percent stake in Silver Bay. “Nothing will change with Silver Bay. Not a single fisherman-owner goes away. It’s just a dilution. The management team will stay the same. We’ll add two board seats, at least one of which will be a fisherman seat. Otherwise, mechanically from the outside it’s the same company, just stronger,” said Silver Bay CEO Rich Riggs.
In other news Tom Enlow has officially been introduced as the new president of Dutch Harbor seafood processor UniSea. Enlow replaces the late Terry Shaff who passed suddenly in November.
Peggy Parker reports on NMFS's revised National Standard guidelines that were published last week and are now open for open public comment. According to Eileen Sobeck, NOAA's administrator for NMFS “the proposed revisions clarify and streamline the National Standard guidelines, address concerns raised by partners and stakeholders during the implementation of annual catch limits and accountability measures, and provide flexibility to address fishery management issues.”
Finally, the ADF&G has issued its salmon run forecast for the 2015 Copper River season. The overall run for the year is estimated to be the fifth largest for the Copper River. The region’s sockeye run and production are predicted to be up 31 and 40 percent respectively compared to 2014 pre-season estimations.
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