Scottish salmon warns governments not to miss out on opportunity

‘Warm words’ are something that come a lot but they don’t get turned into action and he fears that the opportunity to put a healthy Scottish product at the centre of a booming industry around the world is going to be missed.

It’s expected that the consumption of salmon will grow by 25% in the next five years as more and more people look to a healthier options for their food.

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Exports to places such as Japan and China are through the roof, while even in more local markets such as Ireland, they have gone up by 91%. The Asian market now counts for 12% of all Scottish salmon exports.

The post-Covid era has helped with that as exports dramatically dropped during the pandemic but they are improving consistently now.

There is a glass ceiling for Scottish salmon though, in the opinion of their chair, and he wants both governments to take action.

He said: “The challenge we face is we used to be 10% of global salmon production in Scotland which was amazing but as it grows we’re flatlining. We’ve gone from 10% to 6%.

“We’re not keeping pace. Our big message is we’ve just had the general election and it’s a good place to consider where we are as the dust settles. Our thing is it’s time for both governments to get behind the sector. We get lots of warm words and support but we need concrete actions to support the sector. We don’t want public money, we don’t want a decrease in standards, what we seek is to take action in a number of key areas to grow. It’s a huge opportunity for Scotland.

“They’ve all talked about growth in the election, we are the growth opportunity. It’s sitting right in front of you in Scotland. A great Scottish brand with incredible global demand, a healthy nutritious product, creating jobs in rural and island areas so what’s not to like about it?”

Planning and consenting, houses, people and a skills agenda are all reasons the industry isn’t able to move forward at the pace they are hoping for.

Planning for a new farm can take five years, housing is at a shortage in the Highlands and Islands and Brexit meant a lot of workers left the country.

Mr Duncan was at pains to ensure it was known that they aren’t asking for more decisions in their favour from planning committees, they just want things to move quicker.

For housing, they have put forward a plan that the £20million they pay out in rent for seabeds each year is ring-fenced to create housing and goes straight back into the community it comes out of.

He continued: “Our biggest issue is planning and consenting. It’s sometimes taking us five years to process a planning or consenting application in Scotland. Five years, I’ll say it again.

“It’s absolutely shocking. Scottish Government ministers talk about reforming planning, they need to do it now. Stop the talk and take the action because we’re costing jobs.

“Housing is another area because we need houses for our people to live in the Highlands and Islands and there’s a huge housing shortage. We’ve brought forward a proposal where we would invest more money in helping to solve the housing problem.

Atholl Duncan (Image: Scottish salmon)

“One of the ways we would do that is we pay a rent for the use of a seabed which I think is about £20million-a-year, that goes to the Crown Estate and we think it should be used to build houses in the Highlands and Islands. It should go back to help the local communities and we think it should be used to build houses.

“People and skills is still an issue, we lost a lot of people through Brexit and Covid. A lot of European workers who were in Scotland returned home and didn’t come back. We need more people and skills. We need some change to the visa policies. We need a proper skills agenda, we don’t believe there is one in Scotland.

“James Withers did a report into that and I don’t think any of it has been taken forward. Those are big areas for us. Sort the planning, sort the housing and help with the skills agenda.

“Most of all, we want the regulation of the sector to be more efficient. Not less, but we need to move quicker. Scotland needs to stop moving at a snail’s pace with everything we do.”

Despite the growth, the salmon industry has had its issues over the years. Criticism over what it does to the environment are part of that and much more. Mr Duncan insists people would be shocked at how things have changed over the years, and a lot of the criticism comes from how things used to be.

That’s no longer the case, in his view, and he urged people to ignore the myths around Scottish salmon.

He said: “A lot of the criticism is done by people who have their own agendas and is based on myths and not science. The sector takes very seriously its commitment to higher environmental standards and getting towards net zero over the next few years. What you find about salmon farming is they are very innovate and move quickly, so quite often people are judging the sector on what it was like five years ago but that’s been solved now.

“The ultimate arbiter there about our environmental credentials is going to be the consumer. The big supermarkets, they demand very high standards and come and check right back to the fish in the pen. We don’t believe the picture that’s painted by some of our detractors, and we want the future to be based on scientific truth and not myths and distortions.

“My big message is there is a huge opportunity here for Scotland and there’s a danger we’re going to let it pass by. We need some specific interventions and actions from both governments at pace, stop the warm words, start the action, work together and seize the opportunity for Scotland. Wouldn’t it be great if we were creating more jobs?”