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[ariane] 27/6/2004 08:28

Salmon sector ‘must focus on niche markets to survive’




From Ian Fraser in Stavanger, Norway



SCOTLAND’s salmon farming industry must focus on such premium-priced market segments as organic salmon or risk oblivion, according global aquaculture experts.
Lars Liabø, founder and director of Kontali, a Norwegian firm that analyses the industry, said: “Scottish operators will either have to specialise in organic or else develop a brand [such as the Tartar brand]. They used to get a premium for their salmon in France, but they’ve destroyed that. They should steer clear of the commodity part of the market.”

Liabø added: “Scottish-based producers should be focusing on the big UK market and trying to fill niches rather than competing with mainstream and commodity players. Competitors in such places as Norway and Chile have far lower costs of production.

Following a period of sustained low prices, the Scottish salmon farming industry is struggling to remain profitable and is undergoing major rationalisation and restructuring.

In Shetland, four salmon farms went into receivership earlier this year. Last week Kishorn-based Kinloch Damph, with annual sales of £7 million, went into administration.

Administrator David Hunter, of Glasgow-based accountants Campbell Dallas, said: “It was really the terms on which smolts [young salmon] were being sold that was the problem. This was not sustainable.”

Kinloch Damph, like many feed suppliers, had been extending lines of credit to financially shaky salmon farm operations following a model brewers had with the pub trade in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hunter said: “It appears these terms were very, very poor and in effect the company has been financing many of the independent firms in Shetland. In many cases payment was not received until the relevant salmon had been harvested and sold to market.”

The costs of salmon farming are higher in Scotland because the size of farms is restricted by the authorities, bureacracy and because the Crown Estate owns the seabed and charges salmon farms rent.

The Executive has made gestures of support, including putting together a “frameworkR21; last year and securing £1.5m of European money to help fund a campaign to promote the health benefits of salmon.

But the Executive’s actions are seen as too little too late by Scottish salmon farmers, who fear others will go the way of Kinloch Damph unless prices rise. Last week, the industry was disappointed when Allan Wilson, deputy environment and rural development minister, failed to attend an industry conference in Stavanger.

Wilson was meant to speak on “maintaining momentum in Scottish aquaculture” but delegated the task to civil servant David Wilson instead.

Scotland’s annual production of farmed salmon is expected to fall from 142,000 tonnes this year to around 130,000 tonnes in 2005. Norwegian and Chilean production is estimated at around 500,000 tonnes apiece.

But Cameron Davidson, managing director of Marine Harvest – whose parent, Nutreco, organised the Aqua Vision 2004 event in Stavanger – disagrees with Liabø’s views.

“Our cost structure could easily be as good as Norway’s. But we have found it hard to generate economies of scale because of the slow pace of regulatory change, particularly over Allowable Zones of Effect (AZEs).”

“Also, there is no niche market big enough for 130,000 tonnes of fish. You can only sell a relatively small amount at a premium. Instead what we have to do is become cleverer in the way we market salmon and – as last week’s conference suggested – become market-led rather than production-driven.”

27 June 2004

[maywillow] 24/6/2004 20:25

Guidance on oily fish consumption


Seven out of 10 people never eat oily fish, the FSA says
The Food Standards Agency has issued advice on how much oily fish it is safe for people to eat.
It says men, boys and women past childbearing age can eat up to four portions of oily fish such as salmon, tuna, trout and sardines a week.

Women of childbearing age should keep to a maximum of two portions a week.

Oily fish contains omega-3 fatty acids which help to prevent heart disease, but pollutants in the fish may also pose a health risk to human health.

Eating oily fish is a simple way for people to reduce the risks of heart disease.

Sir John Krebs
The guidance suggests most people do not eat enough oily fish to gain a health benefit.

On average, people in the UK eat a third of a portion of oily fish a week. Seven out of 10 do not eat any at all.

However, experts are concerned about chemicals found in the fish such as dioxins and PCBs.

These can accumulate over time in the body and could have adverse health effects if consumed over long periods at high levels.

The levels of dioxins in oily fish vary and some types, such as herring, tend to have higher levels than others, such as trout.

The FSA experts based their recommendations on people eating different types of oily fish.

Sir John Krebs, FSA chair, said: "Eating oily fish is a simple way for people to reduce the risks of heart disease.

"Eating just one portion of oily fish a week has clear cut health benefits.

"This extensive review of the scientific evidence has reduced the uncertainty about how many oily fish people can safely eat without the benefits being outweighed by the risks."

The FSA expert group found that women should be most careful about their level of oily fish consumption because of the possible risks to the unborn baby.

Foetal development

However, they stressed that eating oily fish in moderation during pregnancy was a good idea because it helped the neurological development of the foetus.

Long standing public health advice continues to be that people should eat at least two portions of fish a week, and that one should be oily.

The agency already advises pregnant women, and women intending to become pregnant to avoid shark, marlin and swordfish and not to eat large amounts of tuna.

The guidance also stresses that occasionally eating more than the recommended amounts of oily fish will not be harmful.

Possible risks from chemicals such as dioxins are not immediate - they develop as the chemicals accumulate in the body over a long period of time.

[waldron] 10/6/2004 15:19

Cod farming aims to save favourite fish

By Helen Britton
BBC Money Programme



UK fishermen return with less and less cod

Britons currently consume in excess of 270,000 tonnes of cod every year, but with wild stocks dwindling, the future of the UK's favourite fish is looking doubtful.

However a glimmer of hope has appeared in the form of a family business in the Shetland Isles, Johnson Sea Farms.

They may have come up with a solution to keep cod firmly on the menu by starting the UK's first commercial cod farm.

Brothers, Angus and Ivor Johnson, the owners of Johnson Sea Farms, started out as fishermen before moving into salmon farming in the early 80s.

Their business flourished but in 1994 they sold out, just in time. By the mid-nineties the gold rush that had been the salmon farming industry was over.

From codling to profit

They looked for new business opportunities. Farming cod was a possibility, but initially was deemed too complicated because young cod have a tendency to cannibalism.


Karol Rzepkowski hopes he can sell cod to City investors

However, the increasing rarity of wild cod in conjunction with the continued high demand for the fish has pushed up the price of cod.

Now, it just might be financially viable to farm this highly priced fish.

So, the Johnsons have started a new company Johnson's Cod, and brought in marketing whiz kid Karol Rzepkowski as a director.

In order to get the new cod venture off the ground Karol has come up with an ingenious scheme.

The plan is to raise £2.5m in the city which will allow Johnson Cod to buy 1.5m codling and raise them to maturity.

The full grown cod would then be sold and investors left with healthy profits. The question is will City investors take the bait?

The bad aftertaste of salmon farming

Overshadowing all this is the experience of what happened to farmed salmon, an industry burdened by a seemingly endless stream of bad publicity.


Salmon farming's environmental record is under scrutiny

Environmentalists have complained about the chemicals used to treat fish diseases, the pollution from salmon farms that goes directly into the sea, and the detrimental effect of fish farms on wild salmon populations.

Investors face the threat that environmentalists, who see salmon farming as a catastrophe, will extend their fight against the farming of cod.

A flood of cod?

The early signs don't look good.

Don Staniford from the Salmon Farm Protest Group sees cod farming as a 'disaster waiting to happen'.

With the latest farmed salmon scare in January raising questions and controversy over how safe farmed salmon is to eat, City investors will have to believe in Karol's ability to distance his cod farming project from this bad publicity.

Even if the Johnsons do manage to convince investors to back their project, they will have other hurdles to jump.

One of the most daunting problems salmon farmers have had to face is overproduction and the corresponding drop in prices.

Chances are the same thing will happen all over again.

Nutreco, the world's biggest farmed salmon producer, will soon be producing three times more farmed cod than the Johnsons, at its sites in Norway.

Magnus Skretting, who is in charge of Nutreco's cod project, believes that "the Norwegian industry can produce easily 100,000 tonnes within 2010 and then double it within 2013".

Organic cod

The Norwegians are deadly serious about making cod work. Their government has already invested £20m into researching and developing this new farmed product.


Cod and chips is getting pricey as wild fish stocks dwindle

If Norway can pull this off then it could be hard for the Johnsons to get the price they need for their cod.

So, the Johnsons' cod farming project looks risky but they have a plan; they believe that by making their farm organic they will produce a premium product that will not directly compete with any other cod.

The hope is that organic status will also help them to avoid the negative image of farmed fish and allow consumer confidence to be restored.

The plan sounds reasonable enough but they are still waiting to see if they will get organic status.

If cod farming works, it could secure the future of our favourite fish whilst also giving a much needed boost to the UK's troubled fish farmers. Over the next year or so, we'll find out if they've got it right.

[ariane] 13/5/2004 11:56

GENEVA (AFX) - Global stocks of cod have fallen by more than 70 pct in three
decades and overfishing and other threats could wipe out the fish entirely
within 15 years, the environmental group, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said.
The warning in a report by WWF International on the world's largest stock of
cod in northern Europe's Barents Sea is based on the decline in global catches,
which fell from 3.1 mln tonnes in 1970 to 950,000 tonnes in 2000.
They fell further to 890,000 tonnes in 2002, WWF marine conservation officer
Maren Esmark told Agence France-Presse.
"Overfishing of cod continues because fisheries policies are driven by
short-term economic interests," said Simon Cripps, director of WWF's endangered
seas programme.
The fish is a staple around the North Atlantic, where coastal communities
and fishing fleets rely on cod for much of their livelihoods.
The Barents Sea accounts for an estimated half of the world's catch of the
fish.
Despite quotas imposed in the area, the WWF report has called on Norway to
"immediately close the fishing for coastal cod", and for both Russia and Norway
to impose stricter limits and other restrictions on cod fishing.
Cod fisheries quotas of 100,000 tonnes in the Barents Sea are not
sustainable, according to scientists, and up to 100,000 more tonnes of cod has
been caught illegally in the area every year, the report said.
Catches in North America have declined by 90 pct since the early 1980s,
while North Sea catches have fallen to just 25 pct of what they were 15 years
ago, according to WWF.
And efforts in Europe in recent years to restrict catches appear to be
having little effect, the environmental group indicated.
"In several areas, like the North Sea and the Barents Sea, scientists are
calling for lower fish quotas and cod fishing bans, but they are ignored and
business carries on as ususal," Cripps said.
"The onus is on Norway and Russia to prevent the Barents Sea cod stock
suffering a similar fate to the Canadian cod stock, which collapsed in the 1990s
and has not yet recovered," he added.
Further threats come from oil exploration and climate change.
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[ariane] 27/4/2004 04:45

Sink or swim for salmon farm industry

JAMES REYNOLDS
ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT


MARINE Harvest Scotland and Loch Duart Ltd are both in the same game, producing farmed salmon in the pristine sea lochs off the west coast for a seemingly insatiable global market.

But whilst their end products are largely identical, the businesses could not be further apart.

One is the Scottish subsidiary of a global corporation - the biggest producer of farmed salmon in the world - which employs more than 4,000 people and has production operations in five countries in addition to Scotland; the other is the newest, and one of the smallest, salmon farms in the country, independent and wholly Scottish owned, employing just 34 people.

The differences are many, not least in production statistics.

But it is the business philosophy behind the two companies that, in light of the economic difficulties squeezing the industry, may well be the making or breaking of their continuation in Scotland.

In January this year, a damaging report into the toxic contamination of farmed salmon sent shockwaves throughout the industry, threatening to ruin the future of aquaculture in Scotland.

Published in the journal Science, it suggested that no more than one portion of farmed Scottish salmon should be eaten every four months in order to avoid an increased risk of cancer, and that wild salmon contained far less toxic chemical traces.

But, just one week later, the study was exposed as being funded by an organisation with a clear environmental agenda against the industry, with no wild Atlantic salmon actually tested to compare toxins.

The fall-out from the report has yet to be fully quantified, as sales did fall in the wake of its publication, but the industry body Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS) is consulting lawyers about the possibility of bringing an action against either the researchers or the PR organisation which promoted the work.

It was an ominous start to the year, and has been followed with arguably the most difficult period for salmon farmers since the industry took off in the late 1970s.

Yesterday a coalition of about 18 salmon farm businesses in Scotland submitted a request to the government for safeguard measures to be introduced against imports of farmed Atlantic salmon from Chile, Norway and the Faroes.

Such an act reveals just how difficult they are finding it to stay in business at the moment.

According to the document, the average production cost of UK salmon farmers is at £2.18 per kilo. In addition it states that, as of 2001, profit margins have disappeared,, being transformed into losses.

Those in the business who are struggling link their troubles to the comparatively small size of the industry in Scotland, claiming it suffers higher production costs as a result. The potential number of sites for aquaculture are far fewer than in Norway and Chile, which both have longer coastlines and deeper waters.

As a result, although there are farms here as large as some of their foreign counterparts, there are a significant number of smaller farms in the smaller lochs and bays.

To put it in the parlance of the corporate world, overall the Norwegians and Chileans enjoy "greater economies of scale".

Most of these small Scottish companies are struggling to get support from banks or feed companies, and some are beginning to sink.

Nowhere are these difficulties which are assailing the smaller end of the industry more evident than in Shetland, with the fifth salmon company in the islands in less than six months yesterday announcing it had gone into receivership.

The assets of Lerwick-based Crolax Salmon Ltd are being offered along with its licences, cages, moorings, boats and vehicles.

In addition to Crolax, assets of Hennover, SSG Seafoods, Bressay Salmon and Skerries Salmon are in the hands of receivers or new owners. The Shetland Salmon Farmers Association estimates put the percentage of the industry in receivership at around 20 per cent. Production in Shetland in 2004 is expected to drop by 19.6 per cent to 47,673 tonnes.

Although it has yet to feel the squeeze that is destroying many of the smaller farms, Marine Harvest is by no means immune to being undercut by foreign competitors.

Only last week one of the company’s leading UK directors addressed the problem in a manner that is likely to anger protesters who already believe that intensive production of salmon has caused untold damage to Scotland’s marine environment.

Graham Deare, the newly appointed managing director of Skretting UK (a fish farm feed production company) and external affairs and communications director of Marine Harvest Scotland told the industry website that fish farms needed to increase in size to become competitive.

Further investments in efficiency would be fundamental to allow Scotland to continue competing in global salmon markets.

He said: "We have to focus on getting more competitive out of the water. That largely means getting the size of the farms greater. There’s no doubt: the bigger the farm, the more efficient it can be."

Heralding the visit of Jack McConnell, the First Minister, to the opening of Marine Harvest’s Mallaig harvesting facility, Mr Deare said that political support was growing for salmon farming in Scotland, and the expansion of Scottish farms was now high on the agenda.

Despite being the biggest aquaculture business in Scotland, with annual production of 35,000 tonnes from 50 farms, bigger is seen as better.

Discussions with relevant regulators, namely the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) local councils and the Scottish Executive are also going on, with a view to obtaining new licences to permit greater use of chemicals and discharges which such expansion would inevitably require.

But, while this vision of increasing the size of salmon farms appears to Marine Harvest Scotland as the answer to current difficulties, Loch Duart Ltd are taking the opposite approach.

The Scotsman has learned that Loch Duart is currently in negotiations to buy out a neighbouring farm.

For a relatively small businesses such as Loch Duart, which only produces 1,800 tonnes of salmon a year, it sounds exactly like the expansion that Marine Harvest are advocating, with the company building on its successes as a supplier at the higher end of the market to fine restaurants and European stores.

But, if the deal goes through, production at the newly acquired farm will be immediately and permanently halved, reducing the scale of the operation and increasing costs.

Loch Duart is the only salmon farm in the world to have achieved formal recognition of its fish welfare and environmental policies - through the RSPCA’s Freedom Food programme and the ISO 14001 international standard respectively. This unique provenance has enabled the development of niche markets in many countries including France, the USA, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Austria and even South Africa.

It is on the basis of this strong market development that Loch Duart has decided to take what is a most unusual step in the industry.

Nick Joy, the managing director of Loch Duart, said: "This purchase will allow us to develop our farming ideology over a significant area of the coast. We have all worked hard to bring success to Loch Duart. We believe that, when all of our current practices are in place on the new sites, we will have a secure and long-term base for the future. Our practices are designed for the welfare of the salmon and the environment, also to maintain employment in the local community."

The company already farms in three separate sea lochs, leaving one fallow each year for full regeneration through the actions of wind and tide, a practice also carried out by Marine Harvest, but not for the same recovery time.

It is actions such as this that, although costly, Loch Duart believes will secure its future.

Andrew Bing, the sales director, added: "Consumers are increasingly looking for ‘provenance217; in all farmed food. Our markets have been developed by finding customers who are prepared to pay a bit more for their salmon."

The company believes that such modest market growth, the production quality and "prudence" during the last few turbulent years will carry them through.

Andrew Wallace, director of the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards, said: "It is encouraging to see a Scottish-based, Scottish-owned company acting as a pioneering force in the move towards sustainable salmon farming.

"Using innovative management techniques such as year-long fallowing and low stocking rates, Loch Duart is demonstrating that it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of marine salmon farming, about which there is so much concern, whilst maintaining and now, it appears, growing, a viable business in such a competitive market."

Expansion or specialisation? Quantity or quality? Such questions are perennial to all industries, but one thing is certain, Scottish salmon farming must adapt to survive in a global market.

[maywillow] 20/4/2004 13:46

(Updating with information on current trading at Five Star and Real Good
Food)
LONDON (AFX) - The Real Good Food Co PLC said it will buy whitefish products
supplier Five Star Fish Ltd for an initial 16.6 mln stg in the form of shares
and cash and the assumption of debt.
The vendors, directors and a senior employee of Five Star Fish will be
granted options over 465,924 ordinary shares in Real Good Food at 143.8 pence
per share.
Real Good Food said Five Star's sales in the first two months of the current
year are slightly below expectations owing to the recent poor weather, an
increase in consumer spending during the festive season and a subsequent decline
in spending in the new year.
However, this has been mitigated by improvements in gross margin as a result
of favourable raw material prices and efficiencies achieved in product
processing.
Sales by Five Star Fish during March and the gross margin for the first
quarter are ahead of budgeted levels. During the second quarter Five Star Fish's
management team expects to gain several new significant customers, leading to an
improved financial performance.
The present cost of raw material supplies, particularly cod and haddock, is
very favourable and Five Star Fish has taken steps to secure cod supplies on
favourable terms for the remainder of the financial year so that further margin
improvements can be achieved, Real Good Food said.
Turning to current trading at its existing operations, Real Good Food said
Haydens Bakeries' sales to major customers Waitrose and Marks & Spencers were
ahead of expectations in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with a record level
being achieved in the last full week before the holiday period.
Weekly turnover at Haydens is currently running at 280,000 stg, a rise of 38
pct compared with the first week of January and ahead of the board's
expectations, Real Good Food said.
At Eurofoods/Cool Fresh, sales to the largest customer Caffe Nero are in
line with expectations. However, Eurofoods has agreed to terminate a supply
contract three months ahead of plan in order to replace those sales with
sustainable higher margin business, which has now started to flow through.
Weekly turnover is currently running at 128,000 stg, up 68 pct on the first
week of January and in line with management expectations.
In February and March, the unit agreed new business set to generate
annualised sales in excess of 3 mln stg, representing an increase in weekly
turnover of an additional 60,000 stg.
[e-mail]
ak/






Real Good Food(RGD)

[grupo guitarlumber] 16/4/2004 09:25

English Français



Something rotten in the state aid of Denmark


Denmark has come out as top offender in a list of European countries giving state money to prevent cash-strapped industries going to the wall, according to an EU paper out next week.

The Danes, along with Germany, Spain and Portugal, head a run-down of big spenders in the latest ‘state aid scoreboard’ to be published on Tuesday by the European Commission – despite an overall downturn in such handouts EU-wide.

European regulators frown upon cash boosts, rescue loans and tax breaks given by governments to ailing industries, fearing that such support impedes EU competitiveness.

Whilst Copenhagen spends 0.7 per cent of the nation's wealth on aid, Berlin, Madrid and Lisbon all weigh in close behind at 0.5 per cent of GDP.

In contrast, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden enjoy good ratings on the scoreboard with the lowest level of aid spending of all 15 member states at only 0.2 per cent.

France, despite high-profile and controversial industry bail-outs involving companies such as Alstom, Bull and EDF, holds surprisingly steady with a mid-ranking position in the list of countries.

The state aid analysis chart adds there is a general downward trend in spending across Europe, with the average pan-EU standard falling from 0.5 per cent GDP in 2000 to 0.39 per cent in 2004.

The drop is experienced by 14 out of the 15 EU states, with Portugal and Ireland showing the greatest percentage fall.

Brussels will see the decline as a statistical vindication of its clampdown on illegal state aid, despite temporary leeway offered to European industries in dire straits such as shipbuilding and mining.

Indeed the scoreboard adds that manufacturing, fisheries, coal and transport are the four sectors experiencing most state aid activity.

The decline in aid help however is not as sharp as the fall in the early 1990s; before the payments started to rise again between 1997 and 1999 due to an increase of regional aid in Germany and Italy.

The report also sees the EU executive classify state funding into two distinct lists - so-called ‘good aid’ and ‘bad aid’.

Whilst ‘good aid’ reflects monies given to research and environmental projects in the EU, ‘bad aid’ signifies financial bail-outs, rescue plans and restructuring funds.

Just as Brussels is keen to promote the former scenario, aid falling into the second category remains a favourite bug-bear of the EU competition watchdog.

And the paper reports a rise in ‘good aid’, expressed as a percentage of the total average across the EU, with ‘bad aid’ falling to a lower level.

France: middle-ranking but high-profile

France may enjoy a middling position on the scoreboard, but the EU’s lawmaker, watching over competition policy, is all too aware of Paris in the context of state aid.

The decision this week by flagship power group Electricité de France to seek legal redress and overturn a Brussels’ demand to repay €1.2 billion in fiscal benefits to the state opens up a new avenue of tension between the two capitals.

EDF follows a line of run-ins between France and the European Commission over alleged state aid, including wrangles over engineering group Alstom, computer giant Bull and telecommunications operator France Telecom.

[waldron] 30/3/2004 06:54

Possible health risk found in carbon particles

[grupo guitarlumber] 16/3/2004 06:44

Tonnes of haddock set to be dumped as quota exhausted

FRANK URQUHART


FEARS that thousands of tonnes of marketable fish will have to be dumped overboard intensified yesterday as one of Scotland’s largest fish- producer organisations ran out its quota to catch haddock in the North Sea’s 40,000-sq-mile cod-protection zone.

A total of 65 vessels, whose quota is handled by the North-east Producers’ Organisation, are the latest trawlers in the Scottish fleet to be hit by the draconian rules now governing the North Sea.

[ariane] 15/2/2004 08:19

Fears for jobs as salmon industry faces growing crisis

[hectorp] 12/1/2004 17:23

GUTSY SCOTTISH Fishermen to defy the EU and fish regardless of law' ( radio 4)
good on ya lads get out there and trawl and lets have a fishing war. This time we could win, it could be a great test case fore UK minority producers, farmes etc.
well done Fishermen's leaders for a change. the mouse has turned!

[grupo guitarlumber] 11/1/2004 16:48

old news , but good for you.

[ariane] 10/1/2004 22:58

Squids and Sharks

[ariane] 10/1/2004 21:23

how does it go?


if i was a chip man

extract from chipolata on the roof

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/1/2004 10:40

Doseage: Not more than twice a week.


vendredi 9 janvier 2004, 22h07
Etude sur le saumon d'élevage: l'AFSSA maintient sa recommandation sur la consommation de poisson

PARIS (AP) - L'Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des aliments (AFSSA) a maintenu vendredi sa recommandation de consommer du poisson au moins deux fois par semaine, après la publication d'une étude scientifique s'inquiétant du taux de dioxines et de polluants dans le saumon d'élevage.

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/1/2004 10:04

Jamie for King or even Chef of Scotland

[grupo guitarlumber] 10/1/2004 09:57

is this a red herring or just a red rag to a bullfrog.

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/business.cfm?id=31392004




HAMLET, Act 1 Scene 4
Act 1, Scene 4 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, with links to scene summaries in Hamlet Navigator, the online study guide to Hamlet.
MARCELLUS
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. (1.4.90)