Associate Feature: Sea change

When 14-year-old Holly Blackie was crowned as the 80th Eyemouth Herring Queen earlier this month, the event celebrated the importance of Scotland’s coastal communities, reinforcing their indispensable role to the country’s economic success and prosperity. 

Recent years though have seen the industry having to weather some stormy seas. There have been post-Brexit adjustments to fishing quotas that have created uncertainty; stricter sustainability and environmental regulations with new practices and technologies potentially increasing operational costs; supply chain disruptions such as transportation delays, and difficulties in recruiting and retaining skilled workers. 

Despite this, the country still has a worldwide reputation for high-quality, sustainably sourced seafood and attracts many premium markets which are quickly expanding, especially in Asia and North America, while niche markets for speciality products, including organic and artisanal offerings are now attracting higher price points.

With 11,000 miles of coastline, the sea continues to play a significant part in Scotland’s economy. The country is home to four out of five of the UK’s largest fishing ports by landings and accounts for most of the UK’s aquaculture production.

Sector’s strong reputation  
Some 25,000 people are employed within the Scottish seafood industry, points out Donna Fordyce, chief executive officer of Seafood Scotland, which is the national trade and marketing body for the Scottish seafood industry.

This year is the organisation’s 25th anniversary and will see it continue in its key roles of marketing and events to increase the value of return to the Scottish seafood sector through trade marketing and promotion; providing business development support; events that highlight the reputation of the seafood industry in Scotland and harnessing media and public relations activities. 

Fordyce has been CEO of Seafood Scotland since 2019, having joined the organisation in 2017 to oversee industry engagement and previously had several years’ experience at Scottish Enterprise as an account manager with a special remit for the seafood sector.

Seafood Scotland offers free services to companies of any size, scale or part of the supply chain, and has developed significantly in the past 25 years. Fordyce explains: “We were set up by the industry for the industry, to drive the collective marketing of Scottish seafood. We began by promoting it within the UK then expanded it into international markets. 

“And we have really developed that role, promoting the sector, creating the economic opportunities for Scottish seafood and growing its value, always asking how we can find new, premium markets for our seafood and how we can best access these markets.”

Seafood Scotland is not only a marketing organisation but also provides a voice of leadership in the industry. “We help to support the sector on several levels – for instance I’m on the UK’s Food and Drink Export Council (FDEC), which brings UK Government, devolved administrations, industry bodies and businesses together with a focus on boosting exports.”

The seven-strong organisation is based at Ingliston, near Edinburgh Airport, which is convenient, as Fordyce says: “We’re always travelling, whether it be locally to Shetland or as far as Japan.” Next month she’ll be presenting at the Fish Waste for Profit conference in Iceland, one of the leading countries in terms of using more parts of the fish to maximise productivity in the sector.

There she will discuss her vision for a similar project in Scotland, including the groundbreaking work done by Scottish company Cuantec, which uses by-products from the shellfish industry to make chitosan – a natural biopolymer with therapeutic and environmental benefits – for high value products such as pharmaceuticals. 

It’s just one part of a remit that represents an industry that saw landings by Scottish vessels that were valued at £617m in 2022. In addition, with more than 200 active fish farms, fresh Scottish salmon is both Scotland’s and the UK’s largest food export.

It accounts, she says, for more than £500m worth of sales across the UK retail market annually, directly delivered to 53 global markets with many more accessed via onward trade. 

There are some 128 fish processors operating in Scotland with more than 7,600 employees, plus a further 200 active fish farms which directly employ 2,500 people, and a further 10,000 indirectly.

Passion for Scottish produce 
When talking about the industry, the word ‘passionate’ recurs regularly – whether this relates to the importance of sustainable practices, skills development or market growth to create economic opportunities and the need to involve more young people in the industry. 

Because, she adds, fishing is not simply about enhancing Scotland’s GDP (though it plays an important role in that). “We are mainly dealing with rural, coastal communities, home to many family businesses for whom the industry is not only important to their local economies but is integral to their whole way of life.” 

With the imperative to attract young talent to the sector, Seafood Scotland has piloted a scheme to educate youngsters about careers in the industry, aiming to expose them to a wide variety of seafood. Much of this still finds its way mainly to overseas markets while people here remain surprisingly reticent to venture beyond a weekend cod or haddock supper, or tinned tuna.  

As part of the 2022-23 Marine Fund Scotland, the Scottish Government awarded £40,000 to Seafood Scotland’s Seafood in Schools scheme which educates pupils about the health benefits of seafood, as well as providing an insight into the range of careers available across the supply chain.

“We also do a lot of work with culinary schools,” adds Fordyce. “In Sheffield, we’ve been working with student chefs to organise a competition to enhance their skills.” Last month, a team from Sheffield College won the Seafood from Scotland Award at the national final of the UK Young Restaurant Team of the Year.

“Many people still don’t know what to do with seafood – so the more we can inform them about how it’s a delicious as well as a nutritious product the better. What fish do we produce in Scotland, how can you cook with it and what new and innovative ways are there to prepare it?” she says.  

“If we can raise people’s awareness in these areas, we’ll have an increasing number of chefs actively asking for Scottish seafood on their menus and wanting to display it as such, emphasising its Scottish provenance.” 

She is also looking forward to the Responsible Seafood Summit which Seafood Scotland is co-hosting with the Global Seafood Alliance in St Andrews in October, the first time in the event’s 23-year history it will have been held in the UK. 

Key topics to be covered, she says, include the technology being used to revolutionise the sector such as artificial intelligence, as well as the effect of labour pressures and the reduction of the industry’s carbon footprint. Some 500 international industry leaders will be in attendance to consider how the sector is developing globally and encourage the sharing of best practice between nations while investigating areas that include sustainability, investment and longevity in the industry. 

It’s clearly shaping up to be a busy autumn for Seafood Scotland, which is also hosting a reception at the Scottish Parliament in November – allowing politicians and key business figures to meet with the industry. 

“We see this as an opportunity to reinforce the resilience of the sector on the back of the Covid and Brexit challenges, but also highlight the growth opportunities and the step change needed for the future security of Scotland’s seafood industry,” says Fordyce.

Skills challenge
 One of the perennial challenges that needs to be overcome is the skills shortfall. “The labour issue is currently acute within the industry, and it’s one that is unfortunately stifling growth,” she says. 

“Brexit brought a new immigration policy, as well as the issues posed by the post-Covid working environment. Collectively, this creates pressures for our sector in that we don’t have enough people in Scotland’s rural coastal communities to cover the job requirements for seafood and aquaculture to grow at the rate we would like.

“We work alongside other agencies and the Scottish Government, trying to improve things in these key areas, albeit not at a political level.”

With a significant amount of positive work in progress throughout the seafood and aquaculture industry, however, Fordyce is optimistic that for Seafood Scotland the next 25 years will see dynamic new developments. 

“One area for expansion of our exports of premium products that we’re actively scoping out is the South Korean market which we’ve identified as a positive one for our shellfish, pelagic (open water) fish and salmon,” she says, adding that Japan remains a growing market with a hugely increased share in the pelagic sector – plus there is continuing growth in the US market with added-value products such as coated fish. 

Meanwhile, maintaining the sustainability of a fragile marine environment will continue to play a pivotal role as Seafood Scotland and the wider industry take a lead as both advocates and practitioners of sustainable practices, not only through accreditation but in the overall mindset of its fisheries and the individuals in the industry. 

“These are integral parts of building resilience and profitability. And the more we do that, the more it will be translated into economic growth and employment opportunities within Scotland, which allows us all to prosper,” says Fordyce.

This article is sponsored by Seafood Scotland

www.seafoodscotland.org