Salmon Scotland
BY HAMISH MACDONELL
After the split Brexit blues are still afflicting the industry – in more than one way
I
T was one of my Salmon Scotland colleagues who put it best: “We have no greater access to Europe than a �lapia farmer from Zimbabwe. We are a third country now and we are being treated as such.” That shouldn’t come as a surprise. A�er all, we knew this was going to happen. We were told, before the Brexit vote, that we would lose all the export advantages we had with Europe. Yet there was s�ll a feeling that perhaps, because we have been trading with Europe for so long, that maybe they would look on us favourably and not enforce all the rules as stringently as they could. But no, now that the latest animal health regula�ons have come into force, it is clear that we really do have pre�y much the same status as African �lapia farmers when it comes to selling into the European Union. That is galling and frustra�ng. Each load of salmon, which would have passed through the border posts with hardly a glance 18 months ago, now has to be accompanied by enough paperwork to wrap a dozen fish suppers. Salmon producers have to declare if the fish is des�ned for human consump�on or further processing – regardless of whether the answer is both, neither or some of one and some of the other. If the fish is des�ned for further processing, each load has to be signed off by an official vet and all farms expor�ng to the con�nent have to be approved by a vet in advance. Then, when it gets to the border posts, almost every part of every
single load is checked by hand even though this is exactly the same product that was waved through with a smile a few months ago. There have been delays, confusion and frustra�ons. There are barely enough vets to process the cer�ficates and the system could buckle at any point, par�cularly if there is a Covid flare up that reduces staffing numbers at the cer�fica�on hubs. We had hoped the whole export health cer�ficate system would have been digi�sed and put online by this point, but that seems to be delayed too. It may seem odd, given all this, that when the 2021 export figures come out this month, they will show that Sco�sh salmon producers sent more fish to Europe in that year than ever before. Those figures will no doubt be seized on by pro-Brexit poli�cians to claim that the UK’s departure from the EU has been a success and that exports are thriving. Those figures, however, are evidence of a much more complex picture. The main reason Sco�sh salmon farmers exported more fish to Europe in 2021 was because there were s�ll serious transport issues with more distant markets, par�cularly China and the United States. Also, while volumes were up in 2021, values were down. Farmers were ge�ng less for the fish than they were before. So the real picture is of a difficult trading year with producers ba�ling valiantly against Covid
been delays, confusion “There have and frustra�ons ”
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07/02/2022 14:53:36
