BAP Spotlight Story: Entre Ríos
BAP Spotlight Stories were created as way to highlight BAP-certified producers around the world and the stories of the people behind them. If you’re interested in being featured in a spotlight story, reach out to us here.
BAP: What inspired you to become involved in the seafood industry?
Entre Ríos: At Entre Ríos, we are a family of farmers and fruit producers. Our love of nature has cultivated a deep connection to the environment around us. This connection is constantly inspiring us to innovate and provide quality and sustainable food sources to our communities and to the world. Our family believes that aquaculture provides the best way to achieve that goal.
BAP: Tell us a little about your company.
Entre Ríos: We have a story of hard work and dedication that begins 30 years ago, with my grandfather, Jesús Villasante, and his love for nature. One day when Jesús Villasante was out working the land he found natural springs that were bubbling up water. Jesús Villasante and his son were inspired at that moment to find a sustainable use for that water. Their goal was to ensure the water was used responsibly, and after months of research they were inspired by the growth of aquaculture globally. A short time later they broke ground on free flow through concrete race. We use that natural spring water to grow Chilean rainbow trout and then funnel the water into the river to ensure our farms are non-consumptive users of the water. We have a low impact on the environment around us. Our vision of a sustainable protein source began.
BAP: How is Entre Ríos involved in the local community?
Entre Ríos: A vast majority of our employees come from the local community around our farms, so we view our employees as our team. Entre Ríos’ belief is that when you invest in your team the community around you thrives. As we have grown over the years we continually invest in our team through internal promotion, education and expanded leadership roles as well as ensuring they have adequate time with their families. In addition, as a no-waste seafood we provide extremely high-quality fertilizer for orchards that provide nutritious crops to the community. By investing in our community, Entre Ríos is helping to equip future leaders in Chilean aquaculture and agriculture.
BAP: Why did you choose to become BAP certified?
Entre Ríos: We chose to become BAP certified because we believe there is a need to build back trust in seafood. For too long bad actors in seafood have disparaged seafood’s reputation. We believe that BAP is the best way to help educate the consumer on how sustainable seafood can provide highly nutritious proteins to consumers globally. The BAP certification process helped us to improve internal efficiencies, continually lower our impact on the environment, and continue to provide fair wage jobs to our communities.
BAP: Why do you love working in aquaculture?
Entre Ríos: At Entre Ríos we love aquaculture for many reasons! We are able to meld our passions for nature and our jobs into one vocation. We can also live in a harmonious relationship with nature in remote beautiful places that few people can ever experience in life. In addition, we have the privilege to feed the world an extremely high-quality nutritious protein while decreasing pressures on the environment. Lastly, technology is the driving force behind Entre Ríos. Aquaculture allows us to constantly advance innovations in sustainability and nutritious proteins.
BAP: Is there anything else you want us to know?
Entre Ríos: We want to thank BAP for the support they have provided us. At Entre Ríos we are always focused on advancing our family-owned company in a direction that mirrors our mission. Entre Ríos’ mission is to provide premium quality foods to the world while maintaining the highest social and operational sustainability standards. Entre Ríos believes that all people have access to three things: knowledge of what we put in our bodies, nutritional food options for our families, and access to healthy food regardless of where we live.
