Blue Week 2025 highlights Chile's role in driving sustainable aquaculture
The Blue Economy encompasses economic activities related to aquatic environments, compatible with the preservation of marine ecosystems and promoting sustainable social and economic development.
With the presentation of five Technological Programs of Industries related to the Blue Economy, Corfo celebrated its 7th Aquaculture Summit 2025 under the title "Sustainable Aquaculture: Technological Boost for a Blue Future", in which the advances of the program and some of the challenges posed by the sustainable exploitation of resources associated with the sea were presented.
The Blue Economy encompasses economic activities related to aquatic environments, compatible with the preservation of marine ecosystems and promoting sustainable social and economic development.
Corfo summoned its southern regional offices, as well as representatives from its Management of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technological Capabilities, to foster collaborative dialogue and identify opportunities for joint impact.
"The blue economy is considered an integral solution to urgent challenges such as marine pollution. Through the circular economy, we can generate opportunities of economic, social and environmental value. And in territories like this, where life revolves around the sea, promoting well-being through innovation and sustainability is an ethical obligation and a strategic opportunity," highlighted José Miguel Benavente, the Executive Vice President of Corfo, who was present at the second day of Blue Week 2025.
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Meanwhile, on the last day of Blue Week Los Lagos 2025, an international conference driven by Patagonia Ocean Hub, Këtrawa, and Chile Spain Foundation, with the support from Corfo, the Summit focused its presentations and discussion on how technology transfer and support for entrepreneurship, innovation, and development can have significant impacts on productivity conditions and the promotion of local value chains.
The Manager of Technological Capabilities of Corfo, Fernando Hentzschel, highlighted the realization of the meeting and emphasized that its objective is to promote and underline the best practices derived from the programs (PTECs) and Technological Consortia of Corfo to boost their replicability.
Hentzschel assured that the current PTECs and the new ones being called are aiming to contribute technology that goes to the heart of economic activity, taking care of all collateral aspects and new challenges linked to sustainability today. There are new technological trends in the field of fishing and aquaculture that we must be able to adopt, adapt and develop from the local industry because, otherwise, the risk is to be left off the board.
Endorsing this vision, the national director of Sernapesca, María Soledad Tapia, explained that new applications such as Artificial Intelligence are essential tools for improving coordination and oversight of organizations like the one she leads, but will also be essential for ensuring the productivity of the fishing and aquaculture sector. "How can we become a more efficient state, how can we also facilitate compliance for companies? It is not only about using tools like artificial intelligence to record and accumulate information, but to make a precise analysis of what is happening in the productive tasks", she asserted.
The authority added that, permanently, coordination efforts are being carried out with various public services, police, and the navy to reassure the public about the regulatory compliance being carried out by companies operating in areas where there are fishing and farming activities.
Oysters, kelp and salmons
During the conference, the Technological Programs on Japanese Oyster, Regenerative Huiro, Vegetable Inputs for Salmon Feeding, Use of Probiotics in Fish Feeding, and Cultivation in High Energy Areas were presented, highlighting the main accomplishments and, above all, the projections of this type of programs for the industry.
Alex Poblete, manager of PTEC Japanese Oyster, reported that, after the tsunami in Japan in 2011, practically all of the country's productive capacity for cultivating Japanese oysters was lost. That, he added, is one of the strengths of Chile as a potential supplier of strains to replenish stocks in Japan. He maintained that the implementation of PTEC has allowed a remarkable increase in the production of this species in the country. "In 2020, 180 thousand units of oysters were produced, but by the year 2024, we ended with a production of more than a million oysters exposed in the sea and with a projection of 3 and a half million for the year 2025".
Another of the PTECs, IPMAPY on Regenerative Huiro led by María José de la Fuente, highlighted that algae are capable of capturing 20 times more carbon than terrestrial forests and absorbing large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus and, therefore, improving dead zones, areas that are highly polluted.
Thanks to this program supported by Corfo, work is underway in crops that host over 700 species from these forests of small algae. María José de la Fuente asserted that "if we cultivate 2% of the ocean with these species, we would be capable of feeding 12 million people around the world and it would be the fifth largest economy on the planet".
Entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem
During the third day of the "Ocean, Science, and Innovation" conference, representatives from the public, private, scientific, and academic world, as well as entrepreneurs, gathered to debate the role that this innovative ecosystem has for the blue economy and its contribution to an increasingly sustainable development in the country. On that occasion, the managers of Corfo, Jocelyn Olivari (Innovation) and Maricho Galvez (Entrepreneurship), participated.
"We are living through a decisive decade, we have to contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals and the blue economy is not a story, it is a roadmap, and the idea is that we can build it together, putting science and innovation at the service of addressing these challenges and decisively moving towards a blue economy that is more sustainable and productive for our country," said the Innovation Manager of Corfo, Jocelyn Olivari.
Corfo, through its Innovation Management, has allocated more than $12.67 billion in supported projects between 2019 and 2024 in the Los Lagos Region, most of which are directed towards the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector (101 projects), followed by the Food sector (23), and Agricultural sector (15). In terms of sustainability criteria, 60.9% of the initiatives in the region (both with central and local funds) are incorporated, even surpassing the national average of around 56.6%.
On her part, the Entrepreneurship Manager of Corfo, Maricho Gálvez, highlighted that initiatives like Blue Week are very relevant because collaboration is key to moving great ideas forward. Here, we gather various public, private actors, academia, and civil society to converse and work collaboratively on a theme where we can leverage comparative advantages through entrepreneurship and innovation. Even more so in this region where there are comparative advantages that can become very competitive around the ocean.
Between the years 2021-2024, through national calls for Entrepreneurship support, Corfo has added 235 supported projects in the regions of the southern and austral macrozone (Araucanía, Los Ríos, Los Lagos, Aysén, and Magallanes), of which 56.6% are led by women. This portfolio highlights large-scale initiatives, in each of these regions, which have received significant support amounts (in the order of $60 million or more), reaffirming the Corporation's commitment to promoting high-impact entrepreneurship in various areas of the country.
Highlighted initiatives
Through programs and technological centers, Corfo has supported a series of initiatives in the field of aquaculture and sustainability in the fishing industry, among which the Translational Aquaculture Center: Aqua Biotechnology Consortium, in operation since December 2023 in the regions of Los Lagos, Aysén and Magallanes, stands out. It is led by the Aquatic Biotechnology Center of the University of Santiago de Chile and its work has focused on projects such as the development of improved probiotics for the prevention of virus in salmon or the production of antibodies and formulation of vaccines, optimization of biological antiparasitics.
The Technological Program for the development and sustainable scaling of the Japanese Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) cultivation in Iquique, Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo, O'Higgins, Maule, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos, is led by the Catholic University of the North since December 2023 and its contribution has been essentially in the development of protocols and manuals for the definition of potential areas for the cultivation of the Japanese oyster. In 2024, the program had distributed more than 23 thousand oyster seeds to small producers of this resource in the regions where this PTEC operates, with resources amounting to $1,988,343,423.
On its part, the IPMAPY Technological Program on Oceanic Agriculture from Regenerative Huiro in the Los Lagos Region (2023), has funding of over 5 billion pesos, and participating companies such as Hortimare AS, Macro Oceans Inc., Environmental Defense Found Inc., Chucao Technology Consultants SpA, Anglo American Sur SA, Algas Pacific, and Ciencia Pura SpA.
This PTEC is a significant contribution to sustainability by aiding in the capture of CO2 in mares and in the deployment of other initiatives for sustainable productive development, such as closing gaps and consolidating huiro cultivation technologies, comprehensive development and scaling of cultivation based on a bioeconomic model, or the development of a global recognition seal for entering the blue carbon credit market.
Finally, the Technological Program " Oceanic Aquaculture Technology Consortium in High Energy Exposed Areas is an initiative that seeks the development of aquaculture farming technologies in exposed areas for pre-commercial prototyping of productive and operational units intended for fish farming. This would allow for the exploitation of high energy farming areas and exposed zones. It has a subsidy of $ 4,098,000,000 and operates in the Los Lagos, Los Ríos, and Magallanes regions.
It should be noted that the event Blue Week takes place within the framework of the Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) promoted by the UN and UNESCO, and has the support of a broad network of strategic allies, including CAF, SalmonChile, Intesal, Armasur, AmiChile, Ecosystem Los Lagos, Ocean Visions, Avonni, PER Mejillón de Chile, Südlich Capital and Naviera Austral, among others.