Value added

Closest to home, within the remote villages and towns in which we farm, the sector is often a key employer, providing well-paid, highly skilled jobs year-round – often with highly transferable skills.

The boost doesn’t stop at direct jobs.

With the country’s salmon farmers spending an estimated £600M annually with Scottish suppliers, independent economic analysts predict that every direct job helps support as many as four to five additional jobs across Scotland.

Combined, these direct and indirect jobs help make it possible for younger generations to stay in the communities in which they were raised and others who have left for study or work to return. They also help attract new faces and families to Scotland’s more remote communities.

All of which contributes to there being sufficient pupils and students to keep Scotland’s more remote schools and colleges open; regular passengers to justify the ongoing provision of lifeline ferry services and other essential services; and a steady stream of trade for nearby shops and businesses.

The more remote the community, the more keenly this impact is felt:

At national level, farmed salmon is Scotland’s largest food export by value and has been for several years now.

Sales reached £578 million in 2022 across all producers, down just six per cent on 2021 as markets re-opened post-lockdown but still shy of the pre-Covid record of 2019.

2022 saw the country’s farmers export to 54 different countries, although the volume of fish transported overseas fell by 26 per cent as more Scottish salmon was sold in the UK domestic market.

Not only is farmed salmon of key importance to the Scottish economy but it also ranks amongst the UK’s most valuable food exports, vying with chocolate and pork for the top spot and positively influencing the nation’s balance of trade.

Domestic demand is similarly strong with farmed salmon – much of it of Scottish provenance – now the UK’s favourite fish, outselling cod, tuna, warm-water prawns and haddock.

Combined, the sector regularly has an annual turnover in excess of £1 billion, contributing millions of pounds to the public purse in terms of corporation tax, income tax and national insurance contributions.

In the case of Scottish Sea Farms alone, payments to HMRC have totalled £88.7 million over the last six years (2016-2021):