● The initiative born in 2020 obtained second place in the Alliances category, for its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), being selected among 150 projects.
● This has been possible thanks to the coordination and commitment of the companies Camanchaca, Landes, PacificBlu, FoodCorp, Blumar and Nutrisco, which have developed an industry dedicated to the production of food for human consumption, promoting healthy and nutritious marine products.
In 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the Industrial Fishermen of Biobío together with the companies Camanchaca, Landes, PacificBlu, FoodCorp, Blumar and Nutrisco, launched the Food Bank of the Sea (BAM). This initiative was born with the purpose of bringing healthy, safe and nutritious marine food to elderly adults living in Long-Term Care Facilities dependent on the State or non-profit institutions, as a way to contribute, from Chile’s Fishing Capital, to the health of those who needed it most.
Over time it became consolidated and, in almost 6 years, it has delivered more than one and a half million servings of fish, positively impacting more than 3,000 elderly people.
This experience led the BAM to achieve second place in the Alliances category, in the fifth edition of the Corporate Recognition Awards Conecta 2025, organized by United Nations Global Compact Chile, which evaluated 150 projects submitted by 64 companies, through an international jury of 50 specialists.
The ceremony, held this Thursday, was attended by the bi-minister of Economy and Energy, Álvaro García; the president of SOFOFA, Rosario Navarro; and the executive director of Global Compact Chile, Margarita Ducci, an instance where the program was awarded that, furthermore, has allowed responding to a national challenge of increasing the consumption of marine proteins and improving the quality of diet for elderly people, a group that benefits especially from its high nutritional value.
For the Manager of Public Affairs of Industrial Fishermen of Biobío, Verónica Ceballos Barrón, “the industrial fishing of the region, with its 6,500 men and women working in plants and vessels, has consolidated a sector that today is part of Chile’s food industry, where more than 85% of our catches go to the generation of healthy food for the tables of families across the country. We are proud to put the Biobío Region in high regard through a solidarity initiative that reflects a joint multi-sectoral effort and a commitment to the well-being of people”.
The union representative added that “this recognition demonstrates the work of the partner companies, which carry out sustainable operational models, responsible with the environment and marine ecosystems, and which have allowed Chilean jack mackerel to have, in a decade, gone from being an overexploited species to being healthy and abundant”.
“But also, we know that our role is not only in what concerns business. We are called to be an actor that promotes the well-being of people, generating economic and social value and real impact in the areas where we operate. That is the Food Bank of the Sea”, she expressed.
It is worth noting that Global Compact Chile is part of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, with presence in more than 160 countries and more than 26,000 participants. In Chile, it brings together more than 220 companies, mobilizing the contribution of the private sector to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through specialized programs, multi-sectoral alliances, the Academy platform and the CONECTA Platform, which already brings together more than 500 national initiatives.
