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In the cool waters of a lake Patagonian Argentine rudimentary wooden crates to float its vera, enclosing within it thousands of young trout that will become a traditional dish of the area.


The reproduction and rearing of salmon in southern Argentina is a cottage industry, small scale, and certainly unusual in a global agricultural power as Argentina.

"Everything is handmade, the spawning is done by hand massages to the female during the months of May and June and then the eggs are fertile to begin the process of breeding, which lasts a year and half to be marketed," said Marcela Beveraggi, owner of a southern farm.


The hatchery trout Colonia Suiza is 1,700 miles from Buenos Aires, 40 km from the city of Bariloche, the main reference urban Argentine Patagonia.

Situated in a paradise on the shores of Crystal Lake Moreno, surrounded by mountains and lush pine forest, the hatchery produces trout for 22 years of the rainbow variety.


While the magnitude of activity limiting its export potential, is a business that has an attractive growth potential based on the purity of a product, developed in an almost untouched and free of disease.

"This is an activity that will continue to grow because it has a great future," said the farmer Beveraggi.


Trout is a branch of salmonids, which was introduced in the United States from Argentina in 1904. Copies of Colonia Suiza pools are raised in cages and then passed.

OTHER THAN THAT IN CHILE


The current production of trout in Argentina amounts to only supply the local market, thus leaving the exterior "to the Chilean" is sent to more sophisticated breeding.

"Ours is a production that requires patience and dedication. In Argentina, breeding and care were conducted in full manual, making it difficult to compete with industrialized farms as those in Chile," explained Beveraggi,


In addition, government incentives to attract investment to the sector are poor.

But in the region, the equation changes and the trade in farmed trout is an artisan who is consolidating gradually.


A copy of 250 grams, equivalent to a portion for an adult, needs a year and a half of work before it can go on the market.

Hatcheries receive about 25 pesos ($ 6.8) per kilogram clean trout, compared to 40 pesos ($ 11) payable by a diner ready to be enjoyed in a restaurant.


The largest farms, with more technology and engaged in export are installed on the margins of dykes Patagonia.