reLAKSation 355. Callander McDowell
Yawn?: The city of Manchester is probably best known for at least one of its football teams. It is not usually associated with fine dining, at least according to restaurant critic Jay Rayner who is always scathing of the choices available whenever he visits the city. However, Manchester does have an impressive range of eateries and other food outlets which are celebrated with an Annual Food and Drink Festival in October. Along with this festival, food and drink is celebrated with the Manchester Annual Food and Drinks Awards. Manchester Confidential (www.manchesterconfidential.com ) has just published the nominees for this years awards and included in amongst the usual best restaurant and best chef awards was ‘The Yawn Award (also known as the Healthy and Sustainable Award)’.
Although the Manchester Food and Drink Awards are probably not up there with some of the national food award in terms of prestige, they are considered to be a serious recognition of what is the best food and drink in Manchester. So when this prestigious event starts to question the issue of sustainability, does it reflect a wider public boredom with sustainability? Is it now nothing more than a big yawn?
This view appears to be borne out by a poll conducted by the BBC’s Countryfile programme in which is asked a cross section of the public from both urban and rural backgrounds about their future concerns for the countryside, the seas and food. Only 2% of respondents expressed a concern about the sea and its harvest.
These findings are not surprising since earlier this year, Martin Glenn, CEO of Bird’sEye, admitted to IntraFish that the sustainability message had failed to resonate with many consumers and as a result Bird’s Eye had shifted the promotion of their products to functional foods, especially the benefits of omega-3’s This switch has been made at the expense of the Marine Stewardship Council’s blue fish certification mark which has now been removed from packs of Bird’s Eye omega 3 fish fingers and some other Alaskan Pollock-based products. Young’s have also followed suit and some of their new range of Alaskan pollock omega-3 products also do not incorporate the MSC logo on their packaging.
This must be a major disappointment for the Marine Stewardship Council, especially as Bird’s Eye was instrumental in the establishment of their organisation along with the WWF. Perhaps Bird’s Eye, under their new ownership, no longer see sustainability as the potential USP they originally conceived.
The MSC were established and functioning some years before the issue of sustainability hit the headlines promoted by the actions of some of the environmental groups. This provided extensive media coverage and as a result, the MSC and sustainability suddenly became fashionable and many companies jumped on the sustainability bandwagon.
Unfortunately, whilst concerns about sustainability were fuelled by concerns over the state of fish stocks, the many warnings of doom and gloom have not materialised. Far from becoming a distant memory, the choice of fish sold in the retail sector has never been greater. Consumers can buy almost anything they want except a few species that were never in huge demand. The traditional species such as cod and haddock are still widely available and still reasonably priced.
One reason why this is the case is the long term fisheries policies which has limited the fishing pressure in many fisheries through the imposition of quotas and restrictions on the number of boats etc. Whilst these policies are by no means perfect, because they have to be a compromise between the fish numbers and the needs of fishing communities, they do have an effect on the state of commercial fish stocks. This means that fish such as cod, stocks of which are supposed to be on the point of collapse, are still available.
We, at Callander McDowell, have previously suggested that the reason why cod consumption has fallen as reported by AC Neilsen and SeaFish is not because consumers are interested in sustainability and are buying alternative species, but rather because the big seafood companies have reduced their cod offerings and replaced it with (cheaper) Alaskan pollock. As a result, cod products are now often discounted because consumers are not buying them.
One other reason why consumers have lost interest (if they ever had it) in sustainability is because whilst the seafood industry makes a lot of noise about it amongst themselves, the retailers have never taken the message to the consumer. Yes, the retailers’ websites might have a page dedicated to responsible fishing but only the most interested of their customers would go looking for such pages. In-store, it is a totally different story and therefore customers are left to assume that any fish on offer has been judged by the retailer to be sustainable and kind to the environment. The only evidence of sustainability that most customers would see would be the MSC certification as long as they looked hard enough. If other companies follow Bird’s Eye and Young’s, then consumers may even have to look harder but we suspect that most won’t even be bothered and that sustainability like many other fads will simply fade away from our consciousness?
Get over it: We, at Callander McDowell, had hoped that the removal of the MIP last week would be the end of the matter but sadly it seems not. Angus MacMillan from West Minch Salmon appears determined to continue the battle with Norway. He seemingly believes that there is a conspiracy by Norway to take over the global salmon farming industry as a strategic move to take the place of oil in their economy. Mr MacMillan told fishupdate.com that independent salmon farmers had been abandoned by Governments in Edinburgh, Westminster and Brussels and given Norway the opportunity to do what they like in Europe.
Interestingly, Mr MacMillan said that he is not making these objections for himself as he supplies the organic niche market but rather because he is concerned for the futures of those working elsewhere in the independent sector as well as those working for Norwegian owned companies in Scotland as he is sure that their jobs are also at risk.
This of course begs the question why Mr MacMillan feels the need to speak out on his own initiative when the European Salmon Producers Group (EUSPG) exists solely for the purpose of fighting the side of the independent European salmon producers. Why have they remained silent if there is such concern?
Mr MacMillan has raised two issues. The first is that Norway has a strategic plan to overtake the whole of the Scottish and European salmon industry. This is nonsense. Even though the Scottish authorities insist that the main reason why Norwegian companies wanted to invest was because of the supposedly superior market image of Scottish salmon, there is absolutely no doubt that real reason was because Norwegian companies wanted a European base because they were concerned that repeated Scottish complaints to Brussels might have otherwise excluded them form the important European market. Whilst, the Scottish industry has fought to retain the MIP, their original intention was to persuade DG Trade to impose tariffs that would make Norwegian salmon uncompetitive in Europe.
Having acquired their European base, the Norwegian companies have continued to invest in order to make their operations as effective as possible. Meanwhile, their Scottish counterparts have hoped for market protection to help profitability. Their claims of doom and gloom became a barrier to investment and this is why the Norwegian industry rose to its ascendancy.
Mr MacMillan also warns that the Norwegian companies in Scotland will get even larger resulting in even greater job losses as they will need less people to operate. This consolidation of the industry is not a Norwegian phenomenon. Back in 1989, Callander McDowell presented a paper to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Government agency responsible for helping the salmon farming industry, in which it was argued that positive action would be necessary to help small salmon farming companies survive future industry consolidation. It was then suggested that the future salmon farming industry would consist of possibly just five companies. This was forecast long before any Norwegian investment in Scotland. Unfortunately, the positive action taken was to support a trade dispute via Brussels, which was always doomed to failure because the original rationale was based on flawed supposition.
Mr MacMillan has developed a niche market for his product and all credit to him for doing so. The survival of an independent Scottish industry will ultimately depend on other independent farms ensuring that they too have their own niche markets to supply. This is up to them, and not Government, to sort out. The reality is the market not a conspiracy.
Patron Saint of Salmon: Although personnel working for Callander McDowell have been involved with the salmon industry for over thirty five years, we were not aware that salmon has a patron saint. In a little light hearted summer reading, prompted by an article in seafood.com, we would like to relate how the clues to this saint’s association with salmon can be found in the City of Glasgow’s coat of arms, something which probably wasn’t apparent to many from the salmon farming industry when they used to attend past salmon farming exhibitions in Glasgow. The coat of arms includes two salmon.
City of Glasgow website
Legend has it that the King of Strathclyde suspected his wife was being unfaithful because she had given one of her rings to a knight. The King then took the ring when the man was sleeping and threw it far into the river Clyde. He then demanded that his wife show him the missing ring and threatened her with death if she could not produce it. The Queen went to her local monastery and beseeched the priest, a man named Kentigern, to help her.
Kentigern took a fishing rod and went to the river and quickly caught a salmon which he cut open. Amazingly, the ring was in the salmon’s belly which he returned to the Queen who gave it to her doubting husband.
After his death in 603, Kentigern was made a saint and a cathedral was built in his honour. To those who know Glasgow Cathedral, this may be puzzling because it is dedicated to Saint Mungo but actually St Mungo is Saint Kentigern’s nickname meaning ‘dear friend’.
The salmon, with a ring in its mouth, was used by the Bishop of Glasgow when he designed his seal in 1271 and it has been subsequently incorporated in the city coat of arms in remembrance of sainthood and the association of Saint Kentigern with salmon.
Maybe those who wish to secure a future for Scottish salmon should direct their prayers to Saint Kentigern.