Despite poor performance 2001 and 2002, improvements in 2003 ensured that Chile was the world's leacing salmon producer, Nutreco CEO, Wout Dekker says.

During a visit to aquaculture plants in the south of Chile, Dekker, who heads up the country's leading salmon farming business through Marine Harvest Chile, and leading aqafeed supplier, Skretting also predicted that the Chilean salmon industry would increase between 10% and 15% in 2004.

Prospects were not so bright for the European industry however. Dekker said it would be unable to recover from the  losses suffered between 2002 and 2003. "For the European producers, especially for Norway, 2003 was terrible," he said.

Nutreco's gross annual sales at almost $5 billion last year, according to Dekker. The South Atlantic News Agency, MercoPress, reports that the group employs more than 14,000 people, 2,800 of whom are Chilean. Nutreco has recently invested $25 million in the Skretting aquafeed mill to be built in Puerto Montt.