Chilean salmon farmer and seafood processor Blumar saw sales of $160.54 million in the second quarter of 2024, 22% less than the $206.8m generated in Q2 2023, the company said in its latest financial report for the three-month period ended June 30. Net income was $7.37m, down 63% from the $19.87m seen a year ago.

The outcome no doubt was the result of Blumar's many challenges experienced during the first half. 

Chile's superintendence of the environment, or the SMA, announced in May that it had initiated a sanctioning process against Blumar due to alleged significant overproduction at its CES Cordova 1 site, as reported by Undercurrent News. The facility is located within the Kawesqar national reserve in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic region. Overproduction allegedly occurred during the 2019-2021 production cycle, leading to potentially severe penalties for the firm. 

Blumar is authorized to produce a maximum of 5,875.2 metric tons of salmon in the facility through 24 cages spread over an area of 10.01 hectares. However, in 2023, Chile's national fisheries and aquaculture service, Sernapesca, lodged complaints against Blumar for exceeding these limits. Subsequent investigations by the SMA allegedly showed that the firm harvested around 6,337t of salmon from the site and experienced 202.6t of mortalities for a combined total "production" of 6,540t. 

Blumar announced, in July, the opening of a new facility in Chile's southernmost region some five months after a fire destroyed a plant in Punta Arenas which the company shared with Multi X, as reported by Undercurrent. The structure is located in a leased facility managed and operated only by Blumar, not Multi X. Blumar invested just over $1 million in the setup, which has a maximum monthly processing capacity of 3,960 metric tons, reported Diario Acuicola. 

Blumar saw net income of $5.54m on sales of $300.55m throughout H1 2024 compared to net income of $34.04m on sales of $389.21m during H1 2023.