Rear Window

Brazilian JBS heir quietly quits his crippled salmon empire

Henry Batista came to Australia to run Huon aquaculture. Now he’s gone, and the company is in a crisis.

Mark Di StefanoColumnist

Mar 7, 2025 – 5.00am

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Trying to convince the local agriculture industry that 20-something Henry Batista was anything other than a nepo hire when he became CEO of Huon Aquaculture was always going to be difficult. But god, they tried it!

The baby-faced Batista was paraded in media profiles in Tasmania and at friendly business summits. He is the third generation from JBS Meats – the scandal-prone Brazilian farming giant that owns Huon, one of Australia’s largest salmon producers.

Mark Di Stefano is Rear Window columnist, based in the Sydney newsroom. He previously worked at BuzzFeed, the Financial Times and The Information before joining the Financial Review as a media and tech correspondent.