Editor’s Welcome

The experience of two years without trade shows and conferences has shown the value of getting together in person.

Covid-19 has not disappeared, but we are learning to live with it, and the last few weeks have seen the return of two big events – Seafood Expo Global/ Seafood Processing Global, in its new home, Barcelona, and the Aquaculture UK trade show in Aviemore, in the Scottish Highlands.

The two are very different, to be sure, not just in scale (and weather!) but also because the aquaculture producers have a different role at each event. In Barcelona they are the suppliers, looking to connect with buyers and retailers from around the world; at Aquaculture UK they are the customers.

What these two occasions had in common was a palpable buzz, along with a sense of relief at being able to meet other people in the industry again, reinforcing existing relationships and forging new ones.

In this issue we report on the Expo in Barcelona and you can also see the results of the UK Aquaculture Awards, held in Aviemore. A full report on Aquaculture UK will appear in the June edition.

Also this month, Hamish Macdonell writes about an initiative that has seen Salmon Scotland and its members reaching out to schools in Stirling to help their students find out how salmon can be a tasty and nutritious part of the school diet.

Sandy Neil reports on the lessons so far from a pilot study in digitising the paperwork around exporting seafood to the European Union. Vince McDonagh looks at the latest thinking on aquafeed and we also have a report on progress so far with Cermaq’s innovative iFarm concept.

Researchers Elizabeth Cook, Nidhi Nagabhatla and Louise Shaxson warn that the potential for seaweed as a farmed crop could be undermined by a lack of genetic diversity; and we also hear from two members of the Welsh Senedd about their impressions from a fact-finding visit to aquaculture businesses in Scotland.