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Ref:707/03 |
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united kingdom
- May 4, 2003 |
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Scotland: Further fall in
salmon prices could cause chain of bankruptcies |
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SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [Copyright 2003 Guardian Publication,
Ltd. Manchester Guardian Weekly ] May 5, 2003
Britain's salmon farming industry is in crisis. The
combination of cheap Chilean imports and the downward
pressure on prices from supermarkets has meant that,
for many farmers, the salmon are being sold at below
production costs.
At the same time, the criticism of the industry from
environmental and welfare groups has been unrelenting.
Farmers have been castigated for serious damage to the
ecosystem from detritus from cages in shallow water
and the use of undesirable chemicals to kill off lice.
Escaped salmon from storm-hit or badly kept cages have
interrupted the runs of wild relatives, and been
blamed for the crash in numbers in many rivers. But
the industry sees itself as a convenient scapegoat.
Over-exploitation and mismanagement of wild salmon, it
believes, have contributed much more to the
disappearance of stocks.
For such a young industry, it has been a
roller-coaster ride. Seen from one angle, it is a
fast-growing food source that can replace wild fish
stocks that continue to be over-exploited. From
another, it is part of the problem. This is because
industrial fishing takes place to provide the feed
stock for caged salmon, which need fish oil from prey
species for healthy growth.
On the western fringe of Scotland and in the islands,
the industry has been a lifeline for depressed rural
areas. In Shetland, where the oil industry is past its
peak, salmon farming has been a boon, and its growth
huge. In Shetland alone there are 176 licensed sites
for farming fin fish and 97 for shellfish, although
many of the them are currently empty as part of a
system of letting sites lie fallow to prevent disease
and allow sea bed creatures to recover. Despite the
downward pressure on prices, there are another 38
applications for fin fish sites and 26 for mussels.
Shetland produces 45,000 tonnes of farmed salmon a
year, about 30% of the UK total of all farmed fish.
For a group of islands with a population of 22,500, it
is a major industry with 400 jobs on the farms and
1,147 in industries such as box making, packing, light
engineering and transport. This is more than the oil
industry.
But with three years from salmon egg to plate, the
industry is vulnerable to price fluctuations.
Double-figure growth in annual production needs the
public to buy more and more salmon. Prices have
continued to fall as salmon have moved from a
high-priced fish to the cheapest end of the market --
although farmers claim without loss of quality.
The industry is now at a crossroads. Another fall in
prices could cause a chain of bankruptcies. Producers
are seeking to diversify into other species such as
cod, halibut and sea trout -- and improve their image.
The problems of breeding cod and halibut and feeding
fry on live algae have been conquered. This month, for
the first time, farmed cod, raised in salmon cages,
were sold on the open market. Shallow sites no longer
deemed suitable for salmon on environmental grounds
seem ideal for both cod and halibut. Sea trout are
seen as a useful niche market, and British and
continental restaurants have a seemingly insatiable
desire for mussels and oysters.
To combat what the industry sees as unfair attacks and
a bad press, the Shetland Salmon Farmers' Association
invited the Guardian to visit the industry. Among the
places viewed, in biting northerly winds and choppy
seas, was a farm with 600,000 salmon owned by the
Shetland Farmed Salmon Group and Hoove Salmon. There
were 10 cages, each containing 60,000 fish in various
stages of growth.
The economics are in telephone numbers. Each salmon
costs $ 1.60 as a year-old smolt, demanding an outlay
of $ 950,000 to stock the cages. The feed costs $ 950
a tonne and 3,000 tonnes are needed to produce 2,500
tonnes of fish, a conversion of feed to fish of which
the industry is proud. Carefully controlled feeding,
using cameras and computers that cut off the supply
the moment the salmon stop eating, keeps waste
minimal.
Add the cost of the original fish to the $ 2.8m feed
bill, $ 950,000 to set up the farm, the wages and
administration, and the farmer needs to gross $ 6.5m
from sales to make a profit.
Angus Grains, managing director of the company, says:
'Things are so tight that the return on capital is
marginal. We are getting $ 2.40 a kilo for the salmon.
Production costs are running at just below that, but
that is now. If prices dip again, we make a loss. For
the capital employed it is a big gamble. To try and
spread the risk we are moving into cod.'
The industry believes it has made great strides in
fighting off its critics. The cages have been moved
into deep water to take advantage of the water's high
oxygen content. Salmon thrive in choppy seas; they
grow more quickly. The quality of the harvested fish
depends on lack of stress. Suction pipes are used to
bring fish aboard specially built ships where the
salmon are cooled until soporific, then dispatched at
a clinical killing station without ever being handled.
With millions of fish in the water around Shetland,
this is a sophisticated farming industry that says it
can survive only by mass-producing quality fish. The
only environmental problem the industry concedes it
has not tackled is the source of its food. Currently
the calculation of the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds is that every tonne of food for
farmed salmon needs four tonnes of wild fish to
produce. This is because 34% of feed is fish oil,
which salmon need for health.
David Sandison, general manager of Shetland Salmon
Farmers' Association, says: 'It is a matter of concern
and could be the limitation on the size of the
industry. It is a problem we have to address.' The
industry points out that most industry fish meal goes
not to aquaculture but to feed chickens and pigs,
arguably the wrong use for an increasingly scarce
resource. In addition, experimental feeding programmes
are taking place in the Shetlands using 50% vegetable
oils from crops such as oil seed rape.
One advantage of the switch to cod and halibut
production is that these fish need only half as much
fish oil in their diet. |
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