reLAKSation 75. 

Own worst enemy: Speaking at the Salmon Days conference, Tarald Sivertsen, leader of Norway’s reference group expressed concern about the possibility that Norway may be treated differently to Chile and the Faeroes following the EU’s decision to halt further investigation into dumping allegations. According to Intrafish, he believes that Norway is handicapped in relation to other salmon producing countries by the extra duties they pay as a result of the EU salmon agreement. Mr Sivertsen hopes for sympathy from other producers but went on to suggest that “our common enemy is, in fact ‘ourselves’.”

Certainly, Mr Sivertsen’s statement appears to ring true, for also speaking at the conference, FHL project director, Per Dag Iversen indicated that the Norwegian salmon industry is making efforts to secure a voluntary agreement between itself and the EU, with future plans to extend any agreement to include Chile and the Faeroe Islands.

Intrafish reports that Mr Iversen stressed the importance of such an agreement so that Norway could avoid future dumping charges. He said that ‘whether Norway is accused of dumping in 12 months time is to a certain degree, up to us and dependent on the way that Norway conducts itself in the market.’

Clearly, Mr Iversen has not listened to Mr Sivertsen’s comments as he seems determined to shackle the Norwegian salmon industry with unnecessary controls for the foreseeable future, at a time when the EU has finally recognised that these continued allegations of dumping have no real substance. Having spent a lot of time and money investigating these complaints, the EU is unlikely to react to future complaints without a great deal of incontrovertible evidence. Hopefully, the international salmon industry will now start to recognise that dumping complaints are no longer an excuse for poor marketing.

Mr Iversen told delegates at the conference that with the EU no longer in favour of imposing new measures against Norway, there is a need for a new approach. Certainly, this is a view, which we at Callander McDowell would share. However, unlike Mr Iversen, we do not believe that a voluntary agreement with Europe is the answer. As the EU appear to be placing less emphasis on dumping investigations, then it seems pointless trying to develop a strategy aimed at avoiding future complaints.

It is unclear how any such a voluntary agreement might actually work. The EU salmon agreement largely failed to exert any influence on the salmon market and a voluntary agreement is unlikely to work any better. The EU agreement included a limitation on export growth as well as a minimum import price and it is difficult to see how such controls can be transferred to a voluntary arrangement.

The most obvious form of control is a limitation on production. However, as the production cycle is so long, any changes imposed by an agreement will take a significant length of time to work through to the marketplace, by which time, they will probably be irrelevant anyway. Those who advocate controls will argue that rather than wait for a downturn in the market to necessitate changes to production, they believe it would be preferable to anticipate problems and impose production controls from the outset. This would be regulated by a system of Producer Organisations.

The concept of Producer Organisations has been promoted for several years yet, the international salmon industry has never been persuaded to adopt this approach. Some of the strongest advocates of PO’s can be found in the Scottish industry but when advised that they should progress the concept as a voluntary arrangement, they argued that without legislation, PO’s would not work. The same could be said of any other voluntary arrangement irrespective of it mode of operation.

If so-called excessive production is the reason for the ongoing price decline, then the international industry already have the mechanism to bring in a voluntary arrangement, if this is what they really want. The International Salmon Farmers Association encompasses all the major producing nations. What is to prevent this forum agreeing to a voluntary stop on further production growth with the aim of stabilising prices?

We, at Callander McDowell do not think that this is the answer. The marketplace has become extremely complex and demand for salmon continues to rise. Limiting production is unlikely to solve any problems for any price rise will be accompanied by a decline in demand as consumer seek cheaper alternatives. We certainly believe that the industry would be better served if Mr Iversen and his colleagues started to look at market development rather than market constraint! Mr Iversen may like to reflect that previous voluntary measures such as the self imposed feed quotas may have had more of an adverse affect on the Norwegian industry than those measures dictated by the EU salmon agreement.  

Do as we don’t: Princess Anne has urged Scotland to its traditional diet of oatmeal fish and vegetables. According to the Herald, Princess Anne said that there is no excuse for Scotland’s poor record on health and diet as the traditional Scottish diet is one of the healthiest around.

Her comments coincide with the release of the Aquaculture Working Group’s draft strategy which also argues for the promotion of fish as part of a healthy diet. The strategy recommends that the industry establish a ‘Healthy Seafood Eating’ taskforce. Yet, such an approach is unlikely to succeed.

Seafood is regularly promoted as part of a healthy diet. The salmon industry regularly focuses on the benefits of omega 3 fatty acids and there have been many reports how these nutrients can help. The continued poor health of the Scottish nation would suggest that most people ignore the healthy eating message. It is likely that a ‘Healthy Seafood Eating’ taskforce will also fail to get the message home. This is because the very people who need to improve their diet are unlikely to hear about the benefits. For example, leaflets extolling the benefits of salmon are usually found on the fish counter, yet these consumers do not buy fish and are unlikely to visit the fish counter at all.

The national health is very important and improvements to diet and health need to be addressed by Government. The public needs to be persuaded to change to a healthy lifestyle, not just eat more fish, oats and vegetables.

Riverside Menu: Whilst some sections of the salmon industry moan on about cheap imports, the need for stronger measures and production control, the trout industry is showing the way forward.

Silver Trout, a small producers group, has begun production of  ‘Trout & Pesto Plait’ a variation on salmon en-croute, which is being stocked by British supermarket giant, Sainsburys. This product is manufactured under their own brand and is promoted as being made from English river trout.

Silver Trout should be congratulated for looking towards the consumer market with a well thought out and attractive dish. It’s a shame that the Scottish salmon industry is just too busy to notice how the trout industry are starting to develop their own market.    

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