Plant
Blumar S.A.
Plant
Blumar S.A.
Site
- country
- Chile
Crimes & Concerns
- Labor & Human Rights
- Health & Safety*
- Environment
- Miscellaneous
Blumar S.A. is directly associated with labor & human rights issues such as worker injury and labor rights violations; environmental issues such as air pollution and water pollution; and miscellaneous. It is also linked to health and safety issues such as worker death and poor ship condition.
View notes
View notes
- Miscellaneous
- On November 23, 2023, Blumar was charged with exceeding the maximum authorized production of salmon for the 2019 - 2020 production season. This violation can carry a fine of up to 5,000 annual tax units, or $3.75 million.
- Environment
- In May 2021, the regional Ministerial Health Secretariat of Chile initiated six sanitary summaries for foul odors against this company and five other fishing companies in Bahía Coronel following complaints from local residents, according to Biobío Chile. Foul odors in Coronel have been a long-standing issue for decades, prompting the municipality’s Environmental Directorate to set up a WhatsApp number for reporting complaints. Thanks to coordination between residents and authorities, concrete sanctions were imposed on the companies affecting the community’s quality of life. The companies involved were: Camanchaca Pesca Sur, Alimentos Pesqueros, Pesquera Fiordo Austral, Orizon, Blumar, and Ewos Chile. One worker suffered a fatal accident and others submitted complaints about labor conditions in May 2023, according to Fiordo Austral’s sustainability report, which did not name the specific plant where the accident occurred.
- At least 16 of the 18 salmon cages that make up Blumar’s Salmon Cultivation Center sank off the coast of Chile during a heavy storm in the Los Lagos region on June 28, 2020. This resulted in a massive fish mortality event in the area, and threatened to pose an imminent environmental threat to the area.
- Labor & Human Rights
- Blumar has been involved in a number of labor court cases involving divers employed by the company in recent years. In each instance, divers were hired by a third-party company that later contracted with Blumar for the diving work. In all legal proceedings, Blumar appeared as a co-defendant alongside the diving subcontractor, since Blumar oversees diver safety and workplace conditions when operations take place on its property. Divers reported they were ordered to dive up to 50 meters (about 164 feet) deep to clean salmon cultivation cages and clear dead fish from the bottom of the tank. They also said they were ordered to dive for longer than is legally permissible, and were not able to take required safety stops on their ascent—causing nitrogen to reach dangerous concentrations in their blood. In one case in 2023, a diver was repeatedly required to complete strenuous physical labor immediately following his dives, and to forgo any safety stops or decompression after dives of up to 40 meters (about 131 feet). This resulted in illnesses such as dysbaric osteonecrosis, which is bone tissue death caused by repeated exposure to compressed air, and avascular necrosis of the femoral head, in which the blood supply to the top of the femur is cut off, resulting in bone cell death and potential collapse.
Marketing Claims Comparison
This section highlights the marketing claims made by Blumar S.A. and any associated crimes and concerns categories that have been identified upstream in the supply chain. It provides a way to compare the plant’s public claims with potential issues that may be relevant to those claims.
Ship
Supply Chain
Blumar S.A. is related to at least six companies upstream, including six ships, as well as six companies downstream, including three importers, two farms, and one mill.
Ship
Plant
Farm
Mill
Importer