The aquaculture industry in Chile is widely dominated by salmon farming, which is currently producing more than 1 million t and 5,000 million USD export value, representing around 90% of total Chilean aquaculture production. The salmon industry was a macro innovation in the south of the country, taking advantage of a market opportunity, comparative advantages, and a rapid process of technology transfer and adaptation. Rapidly, a cluster formed around the original core of producers to replace costly imports of goods and to develop national services as well as R+D+I capacities (Fig.1). Producers, suppliers, academia, and government agencies all shared a common origin and location, which facilitated active communication and interaction among them, bolstering innovation.
Challenges and crises also contributed to the development of national capacities and solutions, with the ISA crisis between 2007 and 2010 reshaping the production model, reinforcing R+D+I, and emphasizing the importance of collaboration in facing current and future challenges. Technology bloomed as well as R+D centers and the number of technology - based suppliers increased. Following that trend, at the end of 2019, the aquaculture innovation club was created to reinforce individual and collaborative innovation as a tool to generate solutions to complex present and future challenges in the industry.
At present, several initiatives in the aquaculture innovation ecosystem have been developed, contributing to the shared objective of building a competitive as well as sustainable industry as well as actively exporting goods and services to other countries.