reLAKSation 136.
Human
Disease: The newspaper Fish Farming
International reports that Thomas Zeigler, president of the US aquaculture feed
company, Zeigler Bros was suggested that a new disease has surfaced – one that
affects humans. He believes that this disease has been brought on by the current
shrimp anti-dumping actions in the United States. The symptoms include not being
able to deal with reality, a tendency to short term thinking and a severe
deficiency of teamwork.
Mr
Zeigler believes that any import duties imposed as a result of the anti-dumping
action will fail. This is because it is only a short-term band-aid; duties will
not be imposed on every shrimp producing country and therefore production will
increase in those countries where duties do not exist; new technology will
ensure that low cost producers remain competitive. He said that the end will be
the same for all those companies that cannot compete. They will either go out of
business; strive to become low cost producers or they will develop consumer
marketing programmes with value added products.
Mr
Zeigler recommends a good dose of co-operation for those who do battle as a
result of their infliction. He summed up by saying that wise men find wise ways
to resolve problems and differences.
For
once, we at Callander McDowell, have little to add to this story other than to
say that Mr Zeigler has failed to mention that this disease is clearly extremely
contagious as US shrimp producers appear to have caught it from the Scottish
salmon industry.
If
only..: According to IntraFish, Centre Party
politician Hans Petter Meland has said that if only the Norwegian salmon
industry had agreed to establish a PO in 1996, then they would have remained
free from the threat of further tariffs on salmon exports to the EU. He said
that he had supported the idea of PO’s from when they were first proposed back
in 1989 and he rued the fact that it has taken the Norwegian industry so long to
come round to this way of thinking. He went on to say that March 30th
1994 (sic) would be a memorable day in salmon farming history as this was the
day that FHL Havbruk finally agreed to make this concept a reality.
We,
at Callander McDowell, would agree with Mr Meland. March 30th will be
seen as a historic day for the salmon farming industry, but we hope that it
won’t be remembered for all the wrong reasons for we are still not convinced
that PO’s will solve any of the industry’s problems as Mr Meland appears to
hope. For example, he believes that PO’s will enable the Norwegian industry to
continue experiencing healthy growth, but without the need for EU membership. We
wonder where Mr Meland got this idea because the concept of PO’s that we
understand concern production control not production growth. All PO’s are
supposed to do is regulate production against a fixed view of the market.
Whatever control is imposed will depend on whose view of the market is adopted.
This is a certain way to ensure that the wrangling about whether the industry is
over–producing or dumping is set to continue. Certainly our view of the market
place is very different to that elsewhere in the UK. We firmly believe that the
physical constraints on production are the only limits to the scope of the
salmon market, but others believe that the salmon market is already saturated.
This shows that Mr Meland’s view that if only the Norwegian industry had
agreed to PO’s earlier then the ongoing conflict would have been resolved is
misplaced. However, the bad news for Mr Meland is that whilst he will never know
whether by setting up a PO in 1996 would have prevented the imposition of any
further tariffs, he may yet never know whether they will achieve the same in the
future. Whilst FHL Havbruk may now have belatedly agreed to set up a PO, the
concept could soon be dead in the water.
Struan
Stevenson, Chairman of the EU Parliamentary Fisheries Committee and champion of
the Scottish salmon industry as well as being a Conservative MEP told the
Scotsman newspaper that a future Conservative Government would remove Britain
from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy. The Tory party wants to repatriate
control of fisheries to the UK and so protect the future interests of British
fishermen. However, if Mr Stevenson and his colleagues do decide to take Britain
out of the CFP, then Scottish salmon farmers can also say good bye to Producer
Organisations since PO’s are a fundamental part of the CFP. Without the CFP,
the salmon industry cannot turn to the EU to enforce the necessary regulations.
This means that the industry is left with the same voluntary system that they
have now and this clearly isn’t working since the Scottish industry has had to
turn to the EU to seek the protection they want.
If
the Conservative party does gain power in the UK, then Mr Meland will be left to
ponder if only….
If
at first you don’t succeed, try, try again:
According to fis.com, a report, recently published by the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, has suggested that cod farming could replace salmon farming in
Scotland. They said that as the reputation of farmed salmon continues to worsen,
more salmon farmers are turning to cod to make up lost income.
This
view of the Scottish aquaculture industry forms part of a much larger report on
the state of the Scottish fishing industry. Aquaculture seems to have been
included because it has sometimes been viewed as being able to replace the
shortfall in supplies from capture fisheries. The Royal Society investigation
has therefore focused on the potential of marine fish culture. They suggest that
a fledgling cod farming industry does not have to increase the pressure for
sites as farmers could simply substitute their existing salmon production with
cod. This would ease the current financial problems caused by low margins in
salmon farming.
Diversification
has long been hailed as a way of reducing the problems of low margins. Farmed
cod is expected to receive a high market price, especially if the fish are of
the highest quality. This is reminiscent of the early days of salmon farming
when prices were also high. However, the rapid increase in production volume
soon brought prices crashing down. We, at Callander McDowell, believe that any
rush to produce cod in large volumes would soon undermine any early expectations
of higher prices and would result in cod emulating all the same problems
experienced by the salmon industry and possibly even more. This is because,
unlike salmon farming, there is still a considerable wild catch coming to market
and whilst supplies are currently curtailed, the hope is that stocks will
recover. In addition, cod farmers will have the luxury of being able to cut the
cost of production in line in the same way as salmon farmers have been able to
achieve.
The
Royal Society of Edinburgh perceive that cod farming will remain a niche market,
benefiting from the quality tag. However, this is what was said about salmon
farming and it has not proved to be so. The Royal Society think that the target
market will be the high end restaurant trade, but even high prices in the
restaurants do not mean that restaurants can afford to pay unlimited high prices
for their supplies. They also work under tight margins and unless the farmed cod
is of discernable difference to wild fish, then restaurants will look elsewhere.
This is the same problem experienced by salmon farmers. The fish may be called
high quality, but consumers cannot perceive sufficient difference to pay a
higher price.
We,
at Callander McDowell are not convinced that such diversification is the
solution to the problems of the salmon industry. We would wholeheartedly support
a move to cod farming if it is shown that this is what the market wants.
However, we believe that the salmon industry must face up to, and then resolve,
their own problems first, otherwise they will simply find that they are starting
to experience the exact same problem with cod farming.