The trade body for Scottish salmon has issued a warning over labour shortages and trade war with the EU.
Salmon Scotland has written to the new UK Tory leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to highlight government action needed to support vital growth.
The organisation is calling on the next Prime Minister to embrace a “more enlightened approach to the movement of labour into the UK”, including a change to key worker definitions, changes to the salary cap level and a broader public signal that the UK is open to people coming here to work.
Vital export
The trade body said that despite farm-raised Scottish salmon being the UK’s biggest food export, the labour pool has shrunk in recent years with many key workers returning to eastern Europe post-Brexit.
And there are ongoing concerns that changes to the Northern Ireland protocol could lead to retaliatory action by the EU, causing increased friction at the border, delays and queues for hauliers crossing to France, or extra costs for exporters.
“Maintaining and enhancing our export position to the EU and wider European markets is of considerable importance to our businesses. Any escalation of EU-UK negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol is high on our industry risk register,” Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, said in his letters to both candidates.
“Continuous access to our main markets in Europe is vital for the UK’s food and drink export success story. Our ask is that a pragmatic approach is taken to these negotiations by the UK Government. No UK export business needs a trade war or even any such suggestion between the UK and the EU.”
Scottish salmon exports recovered to near-record figures in 2021, increasing to £614million - up 36% compared to 2020 and exports were shipped to 52 different markets last year, with growth across 10 of the top 20 markets.
