Obsessives: The news feed on the Fisheries Management Scotland website always makes interesting reading, however there has been very little posted during the summer months. Could it be that the fishing has been a much more attractive proposition?
After five weeks of silence, FMS have posted a news story this week. It might be expected that they would have been interested in the news that dozens of wild salmon have been found dead in the river Spey from unknown causes but no, the only story to be posted since 4th August is the news that FMS have responded to SEPA’s sea lice risk assessment framework consultation.
The article begins by saying that salmon and sea trout populations across Scotland and the North Atlantic have declined significantly in recent decades. FMS then go on to say that following two parliamentary enquiries and the Salmon Interactions Working Group, the need for a regulatory framework to manage sea lice interactions between farmed and wild fish is beyond doubt.
FMS have yet to show that the reason why salmon and sea trout populations have declined so much has anything to do with salmon farming. I would strenuously argue that there is no need for any regulatory framework to manage sea lice interactions. It is just a lot of flannel to deflect attention away from the fact that the wild fish lobby’s idea of conserving wild salmon is to go fishing for them. The only reason that there is a SEPA sea lice risk framework is the constant whingeing and whining from the wild fish lobby including FMS. There has been a total loss of perspective.
FMS are obsessed with sea lice and salmon farming. If FMS invested as much time and effort into investigating the other pressures affecting wild salmon, then perhaps the wild fish populations may not be so threatened.
Sadly, FMS are not interested in hearing that sea lice may not be the problem they claim sea lice to be. They are so obsessed with sea lice that they refuse to discuss the issues and have even persuaded the Scottish Government to fund an Interactions Manager, to lobby for sea lice controls but who refuses to interact about anything that might undermine their narrative.
Fishing reports suggest that 2023 may be one of the worst years on record for salmon catches (if there was a real time reporting system in place as recommended by SIWG, we would actually know the numbers now instead of having to wait for April next year), FMS’s obsession with sea lice may mean that they are working towards doing themselves out of a job. If the declines of wild fish numbers continue then fishing, like netting, will soon be banned. If there are no fish, then there will be no need for any salmon district fishery boards and certainly no need for Fisheries Management Scotland!
More obsessives: As I regularly point out, salmon farming is regularly blamed for the problems of the wild fish sector, as illustrated in the latest Tweedbeats blog. This relates to the fact that applications for licences to kill seals on Scotland’s major rivers are regularly denied. The reason given is that the big rivers are assessed as Grade 1 and thus do not require any special conservation measures. The only applications that are granted are for the very few seals that stray upriver and will not move. Tweedbeats say that killing 2 or 3 rogue seals will not dent the seal population of over 160,000 salmon eating animals.
Tweedbeats suggests that whilst salmon numbers are very low, they are especially so during spring and autumn and that special protection should be given to these stocks but that the Marine Directorate will not do so.
Tweedbeats theorises that the reason for not granting licences to kill seals is political rather than from any desire to protect the seal population. This is because Tweedbeats believes that the US market will not buy farmed salmon if they are associated with killing seals. The blog asks whether licences to kill seals in wild fisheries are being denied to protect the farmed salmon market?
Tweedbeats ends by saying whether this is the ultimate irony given that damage that salmon farms have done over many years to wild salmon on the Scottish west coast. Yet when asked to quantify this alleged damage, Andrew Douglas Home, author of ‘A River Runs Through Me’ who writes the Tweedbeats blogs replied that he had been to the west coast and seen the damage for himself!!
Change of subject: Salmon Business reports that soaring prices have led to a 20% crash in chilled salmon sales at UK retail.
According to Nielsen Scan Track, a total of 62,989 tonnes of salmon have been sold which is 10% down on the previous year. By comparison, the average price of salmon has risen to £19.66/kg Up nearly 14%. However, these figures are for all salmon products including frozen and canned.
For chilled salmon, the total sales were 52,746 tonnes, down nearly 11% with prices rising by 15% to £21.18/kg.
Salmon Business say that the biggest decline was chilled salmon packs which fell by 19’4% although I am not clear how this figure was derived.
An exec at a Grimsby based processing company told Salmon Business that customers will only pay so much especially as people like to think they are getting a deal.
It is true that salmon sales have fallen, and this is to the glee of some of the keyboard critics who believe that their message to avoid eating farmed salmon is starting to get through to consumers. However, they are wrong. The downturn in salmon consumption is simply a reflection of a wider cost of living crisis.
Chilled salmon volumes may have declined by 10.8% but haddock has declined by 13.9%, trout by 32.4%, sole by 29.2% and seabream by 20.4%. By comparison, pangasius volumes have increased by 23.6% with a price half that of salmon although its price has also increased by 8%.
The cost-of-living crisis has undoubtedly had an impact on seafood sales but there is a more fundamental underlying reason for the decline which has seen total chilled fish sales fall from 201,342 tonnes in July 2021 to 166,663 tonnes in August this year. Consumption patterns have changed since the peak pandemic to now, which has seen a month on month decline since July 2021.
Whether this will change will ultimately depend on whether the whole fish and seafood sector wants to invest in a marketing programme or not. It is plain to see what happens when there is no such investment.
Salmon Business also spoke to Patrick Salmon, Managing Director of Alfred Enderby, Grimsby‘s oldest smokehouse, who hoped that the fall in salmon sales marks the start of a shift away from a high volume strategy for the broader seafood sector. He said that in his opinion, the fresh salmon market sold via the supermarket has historically been far too cheap. He argues that the fish industry’s attempts to compete at the lower end of the market have been misguided. He does not believe that fish should be competing with chicken nuggets.
It should come as no surprise to regular readers of reLAKSation, but I disagree with Mr Salmon. In fact, I think Mr Salmon’s view reflect all that is wrong with the fish and seafood sector. In my opinion, Mr Salmon is expressing a view which reflects the interests of his own business rather than the wider fish and seafood industry. This is why marketing campaigns for fish and seafood tend not to work because they are moulded by the interests of individual businesses rather than those of the whole sector. I can fully understand his position, especially being a boss of a business that smokes salmon but I look at the wider picture and I do believe that the fish and seafood sector should be aiming at the market for those who eat chicken nuggets as well as high end consumers willing to pay premium prices. The sector does not have to be one or the other, it can, and should, be both. The sector should be highly diversified with room for all markets and tastes.
Mr Salmon is wrong that salmon is competing in the marketplace with chicken nuggets. Aldi’s frozen chicken nuggets sell for £3.44/kg. as do Asda’s. Branded Bird’s Eye chicken nuggets sell for just under £8/kg. Aldi’s basic salmon fishcakes sell for £5.89/kg which is about the nearest salmon product in price to chicken nuggets. The fishcakes contain 38% salmon whilst the chicken nuggets are 60% chicken. It is possible to buy frozen whitefish filets for £4.79/kg in Aldi which are Alaska pollock and processed in China. I am not sure that any fish, except basic white fillets is really in the same price bracket as chicken nuggets and therefore not in competition with them.
However, there is a twist to this story and that is Iceland (the frozen food store) do stock a pack of salmon nuggets which are priced at £16.07/kg which equates to nearly four times the price of Iceland’s own brand chicken nuggets. I don’t know whether Mr Salmon would frown on such a product but in my opinion, if it converts the public to eating salmon, then it is a welcome addition to the marketplace. The Iceland website has four customer reviews of this product, and all are extremely positive.
The slight disappointment from my perspective is that these nuggets are made from cheaper pink salmon rather than farmed. This is simply a price issue. It is encouraging that a retailer like Iceland is willing to invest in new products even when prices are high.
These nuggets present an opportunity to conduct a taste test, and so I have resurrected my test panel for this product.
For consumers used to eating Atlantic salmon, pink salmon is a different proposition with a different mouth feel due to its tighter texture. Yet in these nuggets, the difference wasn’t noticeable. They were quite enjoyable to eat. However, it is unclear who is the target market for these nuggets because similarly to chicken nuggets the target market might be thought to be younger consumers. However, these nuggets are flavoured with salt and pepper and the result is that they are quite peppery, and I am not sure whether these will be liked by younger consumers.
Iceland have also recently launched a battered salmon fillet. These to are made form pink salmon and the tasters, all of whom were regular salmon eaters, were not so impressed with the taste and texture of this pink salmon. There was nothing wrong with these battered salmon fillets. Its just a matter of taste and personal preference. Iceland battered salmon fillets cost £4.00 for 280g (14.29/kg).
