Farmers need ‘right solutions at right price’
JIM Gallagher, managing director of Scottish Sea Farms, and Julie Hesketh-Laird, chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation, were among the salmon farming representatives at the summit. They gave a presentation, talking about the opportunities for further growth in the farmed salmon sector, and challenged the supply chain to help meet the demands of the sector. Hesketh-Laird said that while the farmed salmon sector had grown in Scotland, it had also lost market share. She said Scotland’s share of the global market for salmon should be about 10 per cent but it had fallen back to about seven per cent. ‘All eyes are on the sector to grow greater volumes of salmon in the most sustainable way, a way that is responsible both in terms of fish welfare and the environment,’ she said. Gallagher said the farmed sector was just asking the same from its supply chain as consumers asked of the farmers – ‘the right solutions at the right time at the right price’. He added: ‘Get those areas right and we will meet the objectives set out in the Farmed Fish Health Framework and the SEPA Finfish Aquaculture Sector Plan.’