September 3, 2013 — The launch in Trondheim, Norway, last month of the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI) marks a significant step forward for the world’s major salmon farming companies; one that it hopes will lead to improved industry perception by NGOs, the media and consumers.
This new organization, which currently comprises 15 member companies representing more than 70 percent of the global salmon industry, aims to address industry standards, biosecurity and feed sourcing, and to make these processes transparent.
According to Alfonso Marquéz de la Plata, chair of the GSI standards committee and CEO of Empresas AquaChile, the initiative started in 2011, following a meeting called by Novartis Animal Health, which gathered CEOs from four of the big salmon companies to discuss significant issues facing the industry.
“They wanted to talk about the big issues, things for which only coordinated action could achieve results,” Marquéz de la Plata said.
“We went public a month ago, but in the intervening two years, we have been working intensively with people in many different companies. For instance, all the CEOs involved attend a phone conference every month and meet face to face every quarter, to check that we are on track. We have set ourselves up to be a dynamic organisation, not one in name only. And by collaborating and improving our working practices and image, we want to show the world that the industry is growing up,” explained Marquéz de la Plata.