FIDC facilitated visit from Valparaiso-based Easter Island Naviera group spotlights growing demand for shipping links
The prospect of a second shipping link between the Falkland Islands and Chile continues to grow after a recent visit to the Falkland Islands from maritime transport company Easter Island Naviera, which saw the company take more than a dozen meetings with local businesses, deliver a presentation to the membership at the Falkland Islands Chamber of Commerce, and conduct interviews with several Falkland Islands media outlets.
Should the meetings and follow up yield enough interest, Easter Island Naviera will be looking to finalize its business case, and potentially seek to start running a once-per-month service between Punta Arenas, Chile, and the Falkland Islands.
“There is very clearly an interest from Chile to re-establish a commercial shipping link with the Falkland Islands,” said Sam Cockwell, strategic projects manager for the Falkland Islands Development Corporation (FIDC). “Easter Island Naviera’s visit and the positive response from the Falkland Islands business community should very clearly demonstrate the seriousness of this moving forward.”
Easter Island Naviera’s visit was hosted and facilitated by FIDC, which dovetails FIDC’s increasing engagement with the British Chamber of Commerce in Chile, and the reciprocal business delegation visits run by FIDC during the 2024 and 2025 calendar years.
“A visit by a business delegation from Chile, and the FIDC-led delegation visit to Punta Arenas and Santiago really accelerated the drive to turn this from simply a ‘nice idea’ to a legitimate opportunity,” said Zachary Franklin, managing director for FIDC. “This is FIDC seeing the interest from the Chile side, and then working to pair that opportunity with as many businesses in the Falkland Islands as possible. I think we saw that with Easter Island Naviera’s visit.”
In addition to using the visit to determine type of cargo the Falkland Islands business community is looking to ship via Chile, according to Easter Island Naviera, the company also took the opportunity to look at options for exporting materials to Chile, including scrap.
With multiple vessels under its operation, Easter Island Naviera currently provides all logistics and maritime support between mainland Chile and Easter Island, as well as cargo transport services from Valparaiso, Chile, to other areas of the country.
