Small beer, but growing
Sector asked whether it could make Scottish shellfish as o ular as farmed salmon
The ASSG conference in Oban was resolutely about business and especially developing the shellfish business. The Scottish Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Dr Aileen McLeod, highlighted in her opening speech the many positives - the value of the product, the importance for the rural economy and opportunities for it to grow.
She also stressed the Scottish government’s commitment to maintaining the environmental qualities necessary for the industry’s success and ministers’ support in general for the sector. This was just what the audience wanted to hear.
This year the format had been changed so that it ran from (seafood) lunchtime to lunchtime, meaning only one night away from home for most but certainly not all participants, with delegates coming from as far afield as New England (USA), New ealand and Turkey.
With this emphasis on growth much of the theme of the conference was how the Scottish industry could meet its targets.
John Holmyard gave the audience food for thought when he reported on the development of his offshore farm in Devon.
As a pioneer of the mussel industry in Scotland delegates could perhaps expect innovation but this is undoubtedly a very brave development and it seemed appropriate that the presentation featured a quote from the film Jaws We’re gonna need a bigger boat’. Happily, this was in the light of the phenomenal growth rate of the mussels!
But Holmyard was also highlighting the very considerable risks in the offshore situation and also the practical problems, such as access to onshore facilities and simply the distance from the harbour he has to travel to get to his site.
But he concluded The bloke who says that it can’t be done shouldn’t be getting in the way of the bloke who’s doing it.’
David Attwood, taking on the oyster side of the story, effectively said that the job was done, as far as meeting the increased production targets, since the production of oysters has in fact doubled in the last year. But this is simply by virtue of the arrival of French interests who export their entire product.
f we were really to double growth with indigenous production, there are a lot of problem areas. He even posed the question whether the absence of the oyster herpes virus was a disadvantage to Scotland’s development. The real question is the potential for improvement of stock and the possible use of triploids, which could provide plenty of additional scope for growth.
Shortage of seed and the benefits of hatchery development were also the focus of the talk from Lindsay Angus of Shetland, where a mussel hatchery is to be developed.
The second day tackled a lot of the issues that shellfish production has to deal with in terms of biotoxins and biosecurity, but then returned to the theme of business growth.
The conference ended with three presentations that firmly addressed the marketing issues, particularly looking at the place of Scottish shellfish in the world of high quality food.
First, the view from the other primary industries, where Alan Stevenson of the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) reminded the audience that the shellfish industry is very small beer compared with salmon, but then the land industries are far larger still, but with considerably more history.
He illustrated his talk with some success stories of marketing efforts from small producers for niche products, such as the hill lamb initiative.
Patrick Blow was able to talk from both the point of view of a farmer supplying the retail trade and as an employee of just such a highend retailer, and provide some valuable insights into the swings and roundabouts of selling to such outlets.
Stephen Cameron, managing director of SSMG, asked in his closing talk whether the sector could make Scottish shellfish as popular as farmed salmon.
From the figures he provided there was real progress recorded, showing that in 2008 only 30 per cent of the mussels sold through SSMG were value added, with a total value of 6 million, but now that