Trade associations
Creating global Scottish presence and awareness
PROFESSOR PHIL THOMAS
B T
y common consensus the Seafood Expo North
America – more col- loquially referred to as the Boston Seafood Show – was a much improved event this March. Smaller and more
intimate than the Eu-
ropean Seafood event in Brussels and more food-customer focused than the international aquaculture technical events, the Boston show now seems to have found its rightful place in the calendar as a distinctive venue, offering access to the great American market. Scotland’s pres-
ence at the show was modest in scale but
the stand was well designed and had suf- fi cient presence and appeal to attract plenty of visitor attention. As has been the pattern at a number of events in recent years, the stand, which was sponsored by Scottish Develop- ment International, presented Scottish aquaculture and fi sheries side by side, providing something of
Ready for take-off
DAVID BASSET, BTA
hose who have been involved in trout farming
for a number of years, as so many in our sec- tor have been, will be amongst the fi rst to remind you that tradi- tionally the strong- est market for trout sales falls between Easter and the end of September.
As Easter 2014
approaches, statistics certainly appear to show that our sales continue to build and lost market share is being recouped, al- though all trout farm- ers will still be hoping for a good summer to help provide a further boost to this process – and to get more anglers out on the water catching trout too. A number of initiatives continue
to show the strong market demand for trout, with new prod- ucts appearing across a number of differ- ent retail categories. We are also seeing strong support from a number of multiple retailers; including high
profi le campaigns such as the annual ‘Switch the Fish’ exercise run by J Sainsbury. Al- though, at the time of writing, we don’t have data to hand, we hope to see a repeat of the impressive 147% increase in fi llet sales
The world’s largest trout producers are Iran ad Turkey
The seeds of doubt A
JANET BROWN, ASSG
SSG has had a busy time since Walter
Speirs stood down as chair after fi ve stalwart years of service. Nick Turnbull has fi lled the interim role admirably but by the time this magazine goes to press we will have welcomed our new Chair, hence- forth to be known as
12
CEO, Dr Nick Lake. Nick Turnbull, also
a Director of ASSG, as acting Chair got something of a shock as to how much work is involved generally, in addition to consulta- tions on FSAS and a planning application for a huge increase in an oyster farm to respond to. While the latter is to be broadly welcomed in terms of our aims to increase farmed
shellfi sh production it does raise a serious concern over the supply of seed oysters that are guaranteed to be absolutely free of oyster herpes virus and hence to ensure Scotland can remain free of this disease. With increasing inter- est in native oysters, reliable seed sources of this species remain problematic too and the need for hatchery and nursery provi-
sion within Scotland becomes ever more pressing. In this con- text we also await a report to SARF on the availability of mussel seed and the feasibil- ity of a hatchery, or alternative solutions to seed supply, for this species.
In the meantime a SARF project has started looking at the possibility of feral gigas oysters managing to reproduce in Scot-
recorded by Sainsbury last year. The trout market is not only a UK affair. We should not forget that the largest tonnage of any fi nfi sh species farmed across the EU remains trout. Trout is also farmed across the globe. Even long-time members of the trout farming industry are surprised to learn that the world’s largest trout producing nations are
a Scottish overview. In many regards the
aquaculture and fi sher- ies sectors are cultur- ally chalk and cheese, despite the fact they produce similar prod- ucts. However, there is an inescapable logic in the sectors coordinat- ing effort where it is mutually benefi cial and where it increases cost-effectiveness. Recently, some areas
of common interest between the sectors have been identifi ed through the Scottish Seafood Partnership Report, the strategic objectives of which have received £700k backing from the Scottish Government. Signifi cant amongst the objectives has been the linkage of the sectors with the wider Scot- tish food and drink
land. With increased sea temperatures this could happen before long and we know that it has already occurred on the south coast of England. The SARF con- tract was won by SAMS, and ASSG was strongly repre- sented at the start-up meeting, which was held in Oban. Appar- ently Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) must develop/refi ne its
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
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