A few years ago, scenes of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ spraying protestors with pepper spray dominated Canadian news. There was an APEC conference held in Vancouver and the protestors were voicing (and more) their concerns over the concentration of power and control by multinational companies. The next year, the ‘Battle in Seattle’ raged as protestors demonstrated against globalization of the economies at the World Trade Organization Economic Summit. While the Atlantic Aquaculture and Exposition went without a hitch this year, save for the few who demonstrated the right to sleep where they fell, it would be a mistake to think that fish farming will not garner the attention of anti-globalization efforts.

In a recent workshop sponsored by the Canadian Aquaculture Institute and hosted by Aquatic Health SA (Chile), it was noted that domestic production of Chilean eggs would be 350 million (unconfirmed) and that importation of eyed eggs would be 50 million. Granted, these eggs are from three species and the importations are spread out over several months. However, mathematically, this represents at least 5,000 spawning broodstock females. Consider that spawning efficiency is 90%, males are also needed at a ratio of about 1:2 and Coho give far fewer eggs than Atlantic salmon. This means that somewhere in the world, singularly or collectively, there is about 10,000 broodstock swimming about with the name ‘CHILE’ stamped on them.

Chile is not alone in this regard. In all the salmon-producing countries of the world, seed stocks have been introduced to propagate the industry. Nor is salmon alone. It is hard to imagine a bacon and egg breakfast without domestic production of swine and poultry. Every agri-industry relies on sources of seed stock.

Similar to the salmonid situation, the halibut, turbot, cod and sturgeon industries have relied on foreign sources of seed to start the industry. Issues of introduction of non-indigenous species aside, some people have concerns that the introduction of seed stocks may be a multinational ploy to consolidate power and control. This consolidation of control is viewed as an avenue to escape high labour costs, environmental legislation or local tax laws. The reality is far less sinister.

In every country where salmon is now grown, it has started out at the grass-roots or national level and was cued by the diminishing returns from wild harvest. As the supply of wild salmon decreased, the demand increased which, in turn, increased prices.. At high prices, starting a farm seems like a good idea; and it was.

Early farming had problems with disease, continuity of supply, consistent product quality and market stability. Take this as reading ‘Cash Flow’. Those with the cash went with the flow and in a few years, there were fewer players, but those players were bigger, more efficient and profitable. In effect, the larger companies were those that had the experienced people and the best locations. These assets are not to be underestimated.

In parallel to the regional or national farming situation, the story continues on the international stage. Salmon is now a commodity that (hopefully) has seen the price bottom out. This economic stress has meant that companies with diverse interests, deep pockets and experienced people survived. The natural action is to grow by acquisition and merger to preserve the continuity of supply, spread regional or national risk and optimize the company infrastructure and experience. Further, who can afford to buy a mega-farming company other than another mega-farming company?

This rather simplistic explanation of the multinational face to salmon farming has profound implications to broodstock management for two main reasons. First, experts got to be experts by doing what they do well. If this includes a species or strain of fish, the corporate body will continue with the practice and gravitate towards the product in the companies’ portfolio. A case in point is the acquisition of a Chilean national company by a Norwegian concern. The new owners changed production species from Coho to Atlantics. This is the area of their expertise. The change was done in advance of the bottom falling out of the Japanese Coho market, but only soon enough to cushion the blow. In any event, the change of species put considerable demands on seed supply for Atlantic salmon in Chile and the demand for Atlantic eggs was intensified.

Second, different growing and culture conditions call for different strains of fish. Some fish do better in certain environmental conditions or are best suited for marketing considerations. The only way to access these stocks is to import them. This means that the latent economic effect of growing broodstock resides in another country.

As a secondary effect of importing eggs, there is a serious health consideration with the importation of seed. The risk of importing disease can not be completely ruled out, but the risk can be minimized.