Trout Farming in Peru: The Lake Titicaca Decision

Faced with capacity constraints at the company's river fed facilities, the president and general manager of Piscifactorias de los Andes (Piscis), the largest trout farming company in Peru, is considering an option to create a trout farm on Lake Titicaca. Although Titicaca was the largest lake in South America and was in many ways ideally suited to trout farming, all previous attempts to commercialize the lake's fishery had failed. In addition, Piscis faced potential opposition from local fishers and environmentalists. Titicaca was also too distant from the company's existing fish plants. Therefore, if it were to establish operations on the lake, Piscis would need to build a processing plant at a cost of several million dollars. However, because of the region's history of political instability and violence, financial institutions were reluctant to offer loans.