Fishing and Fish Products

The UK / EU / Norway trilateral agreement on fishing quotas for 2024 has now been agreed. It includes quota increases for all six of the jointly managed North Sea stocks: cod, haddock, whiting, plaice, saithe, and herring. It is estimated to be worth £199 million to Scotland, an increase of £68 million compared to 2023 quotas.

Stock                                      2024 TAC (% change from 2023)

North Sea cod                         24,900 tonnes (+15.00%)

West of Scotland cod              1,392 tonnes (+15.04%)

North Sea haddock                 101,421 tonnes (+73.66%)

North Sea whiting                   76,697 tonnes (+123.65%)

North Sea saithe                     66,876 tonnes (+25.30%)

North Sea plaice                     136,413 tonnes (+2.63%)

North Sea herring (A fleet)      510,323 tonnes (+28.69%)

Bilateral discussions with Norway and the Faroe Islands on additional exchanges of access and quota opportunities are ongoing.

Negotiations to set TAC limits for shared Coastal State stocks – mackerel, blue whiting, and Atlanto-Scandian herring – concluded in October, followed by the annual meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) which took place in November. Outcomes can be viewed here.

Scotland’s fishing industry is by far the largest in the UK .

Seafish, the public body that supports the UK seafood industry, has published its annual look at the UK seafood industry revealing how much seafood the UK caught, farmed, traded and ate in 2022.  

Seafood in Numbers 2022 uses data pulled from across the organisation’s economics and insight work. It reveals: 

• The UK fishing fleet caught 618,759 tonnes of fish in 2022. That could provide enough seafood to feed the population of Europe two portions of seafood a week. 
• Imports still dominate – the value of imports was nearly five times higher than the value of fish landed in the UK. 
• Seafood eaten out of home continued to grow as the sector started to recover from Covid. Although it is still around 20% lower than pre-Covid levels. 
• Tuna overtook salmon as the most purchased seafood species in supermarkets as consumers started to feel the cost of living pinch. 

The Marine Economy in Scotland

The Scottish Government’s marine economy report (2021) has been published.

• In 2021, the marine economy generated £4.5 billion in gross value added, 3% of the overall Scottish economy.
• In 2021, the marine economy employed 69,800 people (headcount), 2.7% of the total Scottish employment.
• Between 2020 and 2021, the marine economy’s gross value added increased by 19%.
• The longer term trend shows that between 2012 and 2021 the marine economy gross value added fell by 18%

Commenting on the report Tavish Scott, chief executive of Salmon Scotland, said:

“The hard work of Scotland’s salmon farmers in the Highlands and islands directly generates £1.3 million every day for Scotland’s economy, fuelled by increasing demand for our nutritious fish at home and abroad.

“Government figures show our sector is the third biggest in the entire marine economy – larger now than fishing and shipbuilding. 

“We can deliver further sustainable growth with the continued support of government and more streamlined regulation, ensuring the extraordinary success story of Scottish salmon remains something we can all be incredibly proud of.”

• In the longer term, from 2012 to 2021, the gross value added from aquaculture increased by 154% to 472 million.
• The oil and gas support services gross value added decreased by 37% from 2012 to 2021.
• From 2020 to 2021, the gross value added from ship building increased by 50%.
• Construction and water transport services gross value added decreased by 35% from 2020 to 2021.
• Marine tourism gross value added increased by 41% from 2020 to 2021.
• The Scottish offshore wind sector, which is not included in the overall marine economy numbers, had an estimated turnover of £2.6 billion in 2021.
• From 2014 to 2021, the turnover from the Scottish offshore wind farm industry increased by 2275%.

The figures for the salmon sector do not include the wider supply chain, which also adds hundreds of millions of pounds to the economy. There are around 2,500 direct jobs in Scottish salmon and around 10,000 indirect jobs.

Fiona Grahame