The salmon industry in Scotland is urging the UK government to cut red tape for fish exporters, after a trial to digitise paperwork ends without replacement.
Following Brexit, all fish and chilled food bound for Europe requires a health certificate, a process that is both time-consuming and costly.
But a trial of an online system to replace paper health certificates that was supposed to save traders up to £3 million on paperwork has ended with no replacement in sight, confirms Defra.
“Whilst moving to a fully digital service for export health certificates remains our ambition, we are planning to bring the current exercise to a close,” said Defra in a letter to salmon producers.
The pilot had been running since September 2021 and there were plans to introduce the new digital certificates initially in the UK before rolling out to Ireland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.
Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland said that his members were frustrated with the length of time it was taking to develop an online system. “We have been informed of a further delay to the introduction of an end-to-end digitised export paperwork system, which leaves salmon companies with ongoing red tape costs which have already been racking up for more than two and a half years,” he said.
Scottish salmon is the UK’s largest single food export. The organisation is urging the government to act quickly and safeguard an industry worth £760 million to the economy.
“We need governments to reduce the burden on our sector so that we can grow sustainably, produce more nutritious food, create highly skilled jobs, and boost the Scottish and UK economies,” said Scott.
Commenting on the fact that the UK still does not have an electronic health certificate system up and running to simplify the process of exporting fresh seafood, Donna Fordyce, CEO of Seafood Scotland, said: “I am disappointed that, more than a year after setting up a pilot programme to test a new, digital system, which would save the Scottish seafood industry hundreds of thousands of man hours in completing paper forms, we still have nothing more permanent in place. The pilot programme has been halted, with no sign of when this will be restarted. We would urge Defra to make this a priority to support seafood businesses so that they can export their highly perishable premium seafood in a nimble and efficient way as quickly as possible.”
Defra insists the project has not been abandoned. “As has always been the case, the first pilot is ending with the intention of moving into a second phase of delivering fully digitised certification for exports,” said a spokesperson.
“We will begin to test this new and improved service from early 2024, and will draw upon the feedback and insights learnt in the pilots.”
