Scotland’s fish farmers have delivered a 7% increase in salmon volumes to the highest level ever recorded.
Farmers grew 205,393 tonnes of salmon in 2021 to meet worldwide demand, a new Scottish government report reveals.
Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, said that farm-raised Scottish salmon was a global success story. “2021 was a record year and that is credit to the hard-working farmers and everyone in our sector who rose to the challenge of meeting demand for our world-renowned fish,” he said.
“Our sector supports more than 2,500 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs, most of which are in some of the country’s most fragile coastal communities, generating hundreds of millions of pounds for our economy.
“All this has been achieved despite the challenges of Covid and Brexit.”
The report found that the total number of smolts – young salmon – increased by 0.7 million to 51.2 million. There was a small decrease in farming staff numbers, reflecting Covid and post-Brexit labour market challenges, however Salmon Scotland said the total number of workers in the sector remains consistent.
Separate figures show that the sector delivers £760 million for the Scottish economy, supporting fragile coastal communities, while HMRC data confirms that Scottish salmon is the UK’s largest food export.
