reLAKSation 318. Callander McDowell
New beginnings?: According to Fishupdate.com, Michael Russell, the Minister for the Environment, has announced that he intends to launch a new aquaculture strategy for Scotland to replace the existing Strategic Framework for Scottish Aquaculture. A new strategy is long overdue, even though the current Strategic Framework was only published in 2003. It would have been better named the Strategic Shackling of Scottish Aquaculture because it has done little to help the development of the aquaculture industry in Scotland. Instead, it has only served to rubber stamp a variety of constraints that have little to do with aquaculture development and more to do with the aims of various self interest groups.
We, at Callander McDowell, expressed concern about the existing Strategic Framework even before it was published simply based on the make up of the Ministerial Working Group. How could any such a group pursue the interests of the aquaculture industry when the industry representatives made up such a minority of the membership? Their interests were always going to be outvoted and so it seemed to have been when the framework document was finally published. There was little if anything in the Strategic Framework about encouraging the further development of the aquaculture industry and there have been no big announcements helping the industry which have arisen from the subsequent action plan. This was not surprising as it was all about controlling the industry, not developing it.
Mr Russell now wants all those who have an interest in the future of Scotland’s growing aquaculture industry to make their views known. Hopefully, these views will be compartmentalised enabling the development of a realistic strategy. Our view is that the Ministerial Working Group should be downgraded and a new structure, made up from the aquaculture industry alone, should be put in its place. This new group would then be solely responsible for developing a new strategy with a clear economic focus. Through such a strategy, the aquaculture industry can continue creating wealth in the Highlands and Islands whilst remaining competitive; producing a product that consumers want and safeguarding jobs and the local economy.
But as Mr Russell points out, the aquaculture industry must grow in a sustainable manner whilst being a good neighbour to others who benefit from the aquatic environment. So once a new strategy was been drawn up to the satisfaction of the aquaculture industry, then it should be put to the different self interest groups who can then work with the industry to seek ways to help the industry achieve its aims whilst also taking into account the needs of these other stakeholders. In this way the whole exercise is a positive move to help develop the industry rather than one aimed at limiting, if not actually preventing, its continued viability.
The salmon industry has continually argued that it is constrained by too many unrealistic restrictions which make it uncompetitive. This is an opportunity to adopt a more common sense approach. Aquaculture is often used as the scapegoat for many of society’s ills and this is why so many unrealistic limitations have been put in place. The salmon industry, for one, has shown that it can work in harmony with others. There is no reason why it cannot continue to do so and at the same time move forward to ensure aquaculture remains a profitable and vibrant industry and as Mr Russell said, ‘one we can be proud of.’
Scary: One of those groups that will make sure that Mr Russell gets to hear their views is ‘Pure Salmon’, a group of activists that seems to be strong on rhetoric but short on activity. This week was Pure Salmon’s second annual Global Week of Action but despite having a whole week to campaign, their Scottish membership limited their action to just a couple of hours and most of that was travelling time.
Their campaign was organised for Wednesday 31st Oct to coincide with Halloween. This helped Andrea Kavanagh, the campaigns director come up with the following ‘Contaminants in farmed salmon make this fish a scary choice. With toxic brew of chemicals used in their production, it is hard to tell if you are getting a trick or treat’!!
The Scottish campaign organised protests at 12.30pm outside Edinburgh Castle, 1pm out Edinburgh Dungeon and then 1.30 outside Marks & Spencer’s and Sainsbury’s around Princess Street. According to Fishupdate.com, the protest did not last long as protesters were asked to move away from Edinburgh Castle and aimed to rally outside the Edinburgh Dungeon, a tourist attraction instead. Unfortunately, Fishupdate.com did not report on how many protestors turned up but as their reporter seemingly didn’t bother to stay and managed to take a photograph of just one protestor, we would imagine that there wasn’t a huge turnout to support this protest.
However, what struck us most about this farce is that the Pure Salmon Campaign clearly has little idea about the two store groups selected as targets for their protest. Both Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer’s stock a significant number of products made from the same Pacific salmon that the Pure Salmon campaign want the public to eat. All these scare stories will achieve is to deter consumers from eating any salmon; that is if the public were to believe these stories at all. Fortunately, most consumers pay little regard to such scare tactics and since Pure Salmon only managed a fleeting presence in Edinburgh, it is likely that the public failed to even notice that the protest had taken place.
What is really scary about Pure Salmon is that despite the lack of any interest in their campaign, they will undoubtedly make sure that their views are given far more weight than they deserve when they make their submission to Mr Russell.
Exotically speaking: The newspaper ‘Scotland on Sunday’ recently reported that the University of Stirling is urging agricultural farmers to start growing tropical species such as tilapia in their farm buildings in order to stay ahead of the game. Researchers have calculated that a crop of a 1000 fish could net an annual profit of £5,000.
We, at Callander McDowell have previously discussed the research programme that prompted this recommendation and are not convinced about its viability. Rearing tropical fish in indoor recirculation systems is not an easy option and the rewards are not particularly good, if the farmer can actually find a market for these fish. Such small scale farming works if there is a unique selling point or a way of generating a premium. We doubt that tilapia is the species to do this. It is much cheaper and simpler to import tilapia than invest in expensive recirculation technology for such a small volume of fish and we don’t think the UK market will live up to the University of Stirling’s expectations.
There have been a number of previous attempts to commercially farm exotic fish in the UK either using recirculation systems or waste heat. None have been successful. The latest venture has been Aquabella’s New Forest barramundi using recirculation technology and based in a disused pizza factory. The company have been successfully growing these fish and even more successful in getting them stocked on the fish counters of most UK supermarkets. Unfortunately, they have not been so successful in persuading customers to buy them, despite some strong discounting. According to IntraFish, Aquabella managed to sell 61 tonnes of fish last year, a figure well short of its 450 tonne capacity target.
Having experienced financial problems requiring them to seek further investment, the company are now to install a filleting line with an eye toward targeting the lucrative prepackaged market. One of their customers, Waitrose, has indicated that sea bass fillets outsell whole fish by five to one and they may expect to see a similar boost in sales for barramundi.
It never fails to surprise us how some aquaculture companies raise significant investment to set up these novel ventures but fail to conduct even some basic market research. Even without the benefit of Waitrose’s sales figures, it is clearly apparent that British consumers are not keen on buying whole fish as is apparent from the rise of fillets from a range of species that are usually sold whole. However, offering fillets is still no guarantee of success. In the past, Waitrose have sold barramundi fillets from their fish counter but no longer do so suggesting that consumers did not react favourably, although this might have had something to do with price rather than the species. It will be interesting to see whether Aquabella can convince consumers to buy their fillets in greater quantities than their whole fish.
IntraFish recently reported that Greece based sea bass and sea bream producer Selonda has announced that it is to start farming bass and bream at its turbot farm in Wales. Unlike Aquabella, Selonda are an experienced fish farming company. Perhaps, they will be able to make a greater success of farming exotics in the UK.