Yet another salmon inquiry has scrutinised the Scottish sector and found it encumbered by the slow pace of regulatory reform. Is it too much to hope that 2025 will be the year of change, asks Jenny Hjul in this month’s round-up of industry news

The inauguration of Donald Trump on Monday made seafood exporters across the world a little more anxious. Although the 47th US president’s threat to impose a universal tariff of 10 to 20 per cent on all imported goods was not on the table on day one, countries with big markets in the States have reason to be wary of the unpredictable Trump.

‘People are nervous,’ one Norwegian exporter told Intrafish. The US was Norway’s third largest seafood market last year and industry association Seafood Norway has advised its members on how to deal with worst-case scenarios.

In Scotland, exporters remember the impact of the 25 per cent punitive tariff imposed on the whisky trade five years ago, but UK ministers have focused instead on the potential ‘opportunities’ under the new administration.

Scottish salmon farmers, who export around 20 per cent of their fish to the States, are hoping the new year will bring a better regulatory landscape to grow production and develop all their overseas markets.

The sector was encouraged by the independent Griggs review of the convoluted planning process that advocated a more streamlined system. But nearly three years since then, there has been little headway in speeding up decisions.

Salmon companies voiced their frustration to MSPs during last year’s (latest) salmon farming inquiry and it appears some of their complaints at least were taken on board by parliamentarians.

In their report, published last week, the Rural Affairs and Islands committee (RAIC) upbraided producers over levels of mortality at fish farms, though these were lower last year than in previous years, and demanded greater transparency in an industry that already voluntarily reports its monthly survival figures.

But the recommendations made by RAIC were primarily directed at the Scottish government, which has been urged to address concerns about the slow progress in tackling issues with the planning and consenting process, especially regarding relocating existing farms.

On balance, the committee, with very little understanding of salmon farming at the start of proceedings, seemed to be sympathetic to farmers’ challenges with rising sea temperatures, and impressed by the investment and innovation they have deployed in mitigation.

Just two MSPs objected to the decision not to impose a moratorium on growth, suggesting cross-party support on RAIC for aquaculture and its contribution to the Scottish economy, with only the most vested interests (particularly among the Greens and river owning elements of the Conservatives) vociferous in opposition.

The Scottish government, meanwhile, claimed significant progress had been made on a number of key issues, including the management of sea lice and environment protection, since the previous parliamentary probe in 2018.

Rural Affairs Minister Mairi Gougeon said the government’s Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture sets out ‘how we will support the development of our aquaculture industry to operate within environmental limits while continuing to deliver social and economic benefits for Scotland’.

The industry will wait to see which, if any, of the RAIC recommendations are acted upon by ministers as they are tasked with driving ‘the change agenda’.

Elsewhere, the start of the year has seen some reasons to be cheerful in Canada, with the resignation of Justin Trudeau, who sounded the death knell of British Columbia’s net pen salmon sector more than five years ago.

The Liberal-led minority government wanted to transition salmon farming in BC on to land or into closed containment systems, despite evidence from its own scientists that net pen farming doesn’t harm wild salmon populations.

‘Prime Minister Trudeau has been the leader of a government that has actively suppressed the production of farmed seafood in British Columbia,’ said the head of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, Tim Kennedy, as the alliance called for the federal government to adopt a science-based approach to food production in the country.

Further down the west coast, in the US state of Washington, an executive order banning all commercial finfish net pen aquaculture in state waters was finalised, ‘an overwhelming level of lost opportunity to produce food to feed an ever-growing global population’, as John Fiorillo wrote in Intrafish.

On the east coast, Norwegian based Nordic Aquafarms dropped its plans, long in the making, to build a land-based salmon farm in the state of Maine following years of legal obstacles mounted mostly by environmental activists.

‘This is a sad day for Maine’s economy and the future of innovative aquaculture solutions,’ said Nordic US CEO Brenda Chandler. ‘Activism has its place, but with oceans under increasing pressure, solutions like land-based aquaculture are essential.’

Salmon farmers face what DNB Bank’s Dag Sletmo described as a ‘cocktail’ of three ingredients: a bad reputation, a heavy regulatory agenda and new technology.

Reputation, or social licence, is where the industry took a beating last year, said Sletmo, referring to Norway but in remarks that could just as easily apply to Scotland or any of the other salmon farming nations.

‘It is not always important to be popular, but in heavily regulated industries it usually is. It can be difficult for politicians to fight for an industry that is not supported by voters, and it can be opportune to appear tough in a pinch.’

Salmon itself remains popular, the UK’s most popular fish in fact, ending last year on a high note with sales up 9.1 per cent and worth more than £1.2 billion in the 12-month period from the middle of June 2023.

And exports of Scottish salmon are on track for a record-breaking year, Fish Farming Expert reported. International sales were up 11 per cent to £191 million between June and September, bringing the nine-month total to £622 million, already ahead of the previous record £618 million full-year total from 2019.

Keep up to date with the industry’s top stories, all in our next news review.