• A year ago, the company signed this agreement that raises standards for working with the ocean, increasing levels of information transparency, ecosystem care and responsible participation with different key stakeholders. 

                Santiago, June 20, 2023. Fishing and salmon farming company Blumar met with the executive director of Global Compact Network, Margarita Ducci, to reaffirm the UN’s sustainable ocean principles, a roadmap it signed a year ago to improve various aspects of the company’s performance in its sectors.

                Blumar has been a member of Global Compact since 2018, where through its business strategy it subscribed to goals and work plans to address six Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are relevant to its operations and the productive activity environment. These are SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 9 (innovation, industry and infrastructure), SDG 12 (responsible production and consumption), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 14 (life below water) and SDG 17 (partnerships to achieve the goals).

                Blumar’s general manager, Gerardo Balbontín, highlighted that “this is a major step along the path we have taken in all our areas to integrate sustainability and environmental care as one of the behavioral principles for our employees. Through this, we seek to generate increasingly more concrete actions that go hand in hand with the commitments that Global Compact Network is asking of us”.

                The executive director of Global Compact Network, Margarita Ducci, mentioned that “it is extremely important that companies recognize the value that oceans have for sustainable development. Responsible management of marine resource extraction and the various actions that companies can take throughout their value chain to raise awareness about the importance of caring for oceans as an ecosystem will be a determining factor in achieving the targets established in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, Blumar’s commitment to the Principles for a Sustainable Ocean is a valuable message that makes clear that the present and future of successful companies lies in the actions they can take for the ocean and the environment”.

                Additionally, during the meeting they discussed the importance of gender equity in the company, where Blumar seeks to implement a manual of best practices with the support of this organization and establish objectives to accelerate the process within the company, through the Gender Equity Accelerator Program.

                The People’s sub-manager, Natalia Alfaro, noted that “we are working decisively on gender equity. We formed the gender equity and diversity committee in order to provide governance and chart the path we must follow, and we also developed a decalogue of our commitments in these matters. This decalogue will provide us with the framework to develop different initiatives that we want to drive with the objective of Blumar being a place where women and men have equal opportunities and we generate collaborative work spaces where good treatment prevails and there is respect for all people”.

Nine principles of UN sustainable oceans: “we want to be a leading company in ocean care”

In this instance, Blumar not only reaffirmed the commitment, but also presented the progress it has made in the last year regarding the principles of the agreement. “We want to be a leading company in ocean care and that’s why we’re working with a clear roadmap on matters such as responsible antibiotic use, transparency and associativity, with concrete projects and pilots that allow us to minimize and reduce the impacts of our activities on ecosystems”, said Gerardo Balbontín after the meeting.

                The principles the company is committed to are:

1. Assess the short and long-term impact of activities on ocean health and incorporate impacts into its strategy and policies.

1. Sustainable business opportunities that promote restoring, protecting or maintaining ocean health and productivity.
2. Prevent ocean pollution, reduce GHG emissions to prevent ocean warming and acidification, and work toward a circular economy.
3. Plan and manage the use and impact on marine and ocean resources and space for long-term sustainability and precautionary measures when affecting vulnerable marine and coastal areas and communities.
4. Responsible participation with relevant regulatory or enforcement bodies on laws, regulations and frameworks related to oceans.
5. Track and support the development of recognized standards and best practices in the relevant sector or market that contribute to a healthy and productive ocean and safe livelihoods.
6. Respect human rights, labor rights and indigenous peoples’ rights; due diligence in supply chain; engage with stakeholders and communities in a timely, transparent and inclusive manner, and address impacts.
7. Where appropriate, share relevant scientific data to support research and mapping of relevance to the ocean.
8. Be transparent about your activities, impacts and dependencies related to the ocean in accordance with relevant reporting frameworks.

Some of the advances presented by Blumar included, for example, the work they do in Aysén with local artisanal fishermen for seaweed cultivation in salmon farming centers that are in a period of sanitary rest. Seaweed is considered a major greenhouse gas capture agent and contributes to ecosystem remediation, so this is a pilot with environmental, social and economic benefits.

On the other hand, the salmon farming and fishing company also highlighted the work processes in different trade and local and international government bodies, through which they are actively advancing in improving the social and environmental performance of the activities they carry out. Likewise, this year they launched their second