Empresa Pesquera Apiao’s Chilean blue mussel (Mytilus chilensis) farming sites have been audited by an international certification body and found to be compliant with Friend of the Sea sustainability requirements.
Based in Chile, Empresa Pesquera Apiao SA is part of the group Pesquera Itata y Fondo de Inversión A-5.
Its mussels are grown naturally by feeding on plankton carried by the sea.
External experts are in charge of cultivating and managing the sowing and collection of the seeds.
More than 140,000 mussel collectors are located at Isla Caucahue site in Quemchi, Chiloe and another 140,000 mussel collectors in the Curahue area, Chiloe.
Fourteen companies from six countries in Latin America, have relied on Friend of the Sea certification of 16 different aquatic species, fished and farmed from the Amazon rivers to Patagonia.
Empresa Pesquera Apiao general manager Felix Howard said: “We are confident that by gaining Friend of the Sea certification our consumers will now be aware of our efforts taken to produce mussels in the most natural and environmentally responsible manner.”
