The United States is the leading destination market for Chilean exports, with almost $3.2 billion in sales in 2022.
Boston, Massachusetts With over 4,000 miles of coast, Chile is one of the biggest seafood producers reaching more than 100 markets worldwide. It is the largest exporter of fresh and frozen salmon filets, canned mussels, and sea urchins. It is also the second-largest provider of frozen Chilean sea bass cuts, whole frozen, headless, and gutted mackerel.
To strengthen its leading global position, the South American country will showcase its high-quality offer at the Seafood Expo North America 2023, which will take place from March 12th – 14th at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
In this year’s edition, 14 Chilean companies will be part of SENA: Fiordosur, Frozen Sea, Integra Chile, Manuelita Acuicultura, Mar de Lagos, Pacific Gold, Pesbasa, Grupo Dani, Proyecta Corp, Salmones Aysén, Sea Garden, St. Andrews, Sudmaris, and Trusal.
Combined, these companies sell over 124,000 tonnes of seafood in the U.S. market annually. These products are mainly Atlantic and Coho salmon, trout, mussels, sea urchins, Chilean seabass, swordfish, hake, crab, squid, mackerel, clams, octopus, king crab, scallops, and cuttlefish.
“The United States is the leading destination for Chile’s seafood exports. Our products stand out due to their innocuousness, quality, and solid traceability processes. There’s a high interest among Chilean businesses to be part of the Seafood Expo North America, and that’s why we have included two new companies in our pavilion to showcase their export offer,” said Andrea Sapag, ProChile’s Trade Commissioner in New York.
The representative for the governmental organization responsible for promoting Chilean goods and services in foreign markets highlighted that “the Chilean aquaculture and fishing industry is known for delivering high-quality and sustainable products. They offer healthy and delicious flavor options with high protein and nutrient content, such as Omega-3 and vitamins.”
“Our country is also recognized for its sustainable development efforts, which include tracking systems from farming to destination and constant research to create new products. All of this is done under the highest safety standards,” added Sapag.
Higher exports
In 2022, Chile sold over $8.8 billion in seafood to the rest of the world, a 24.7% increase compared to the previous year. The United States is the leading destination market, accounting for 35.9% of its seafood exports. Sales to the U.S. were close to US$ 3.2 billion last year, 23.9% higher than in 2021.
The top five seafood exports to the U.S. in 2022 were salmon and trout (almost $2.9 billion, a 24.6% increase), fish meal and shellfish ($62 million, +16.2%), Chilean sea bass ($50 million, +66.3%), mussels ($38 million, +5.5%), and fish oil ($30 million, +12.1%).
“These figures show that Chile has a high-value, differentiating, and highly regarded offer for international markets,” Sapag said.
“For the past two decades, we have developed, along with the private sector, a commercial strategy to position Chilean seafood in the U.S. market through different industry brands such as Chile Mussel from Patagonia. We have also collaborated with the Chilean Salmon Marketing Council. This public-private partnership has paid off since salmon and trout account for more than 90% of total seafood exports to the American market, growing 24.6% to $2.9 billion last year,” added the ProChile representative.
If you want to learn more about Chile’s seafood offer, you can interact with participating companies at booth 715.
About ProChile:
ProChile is an institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that promotes the sale of Chilean goods and services worldwide.
Through a network of more than 50 international offices and 16 offices in different regions of Chile, teams of specialized professionals work to strengthen the country’s position in international markets, spread opportunities to invest in Chile, and promote tourism. ProChile has 11 offices in North America that provide top-level information to Chilean importers and exporters to generate ties and detect new opportunities.
For more information: www.prochile.gob.cl
