Scottish seafood firms say their businesses are in crisis because of Brexit-related delays and costs exporting fresh seafood and salmon to Europe.
Seafood exporters and fishers have suspended exports of live seafood and fresh fish, seen customers cancel orders or have failed to get their produce to market on time because of new export regulations and procedures.
Some fear that the trade, worth more than £1bn to Scottish businesses, is on the brink of collapse because the new rules require every box of fresh seafood and salmon to be offloaded from lorries and inspected by vets before they leave Scotland. That had been taking five hours per lorry this week, trade bodies said.
Santiago Buesa, of SB Fish in Troon, Ayrshire, said: “Our customers are pulling out. [We] are fresh product and the customers expect to have it fresh, so they’re not buying. It’s a catastrophe.”
The extra paperwork, export certificates and Covid tests for drivers has added hundreds of pounds in costs to every shipment, firms said. Before Brexit, Scottish exporters were able to get their fresh salmon fillets, live langoustine, crabs, mussels and scallops to the main fish market in Boulogne in 24 hours.
On Tuesday, computer problems at the port in Boulogne led to lorries being diverted via Dunkirk and to shipments failing to get to market in time. France is the largest overseas market for Scottish salmon: sales there in 2019 were worth £221m.
James Cook, at the seafood firm D R Collins & Sons in Eyemouth near Berwick, said those complications had meant shipments earlier this week took three days to arrive in Boulogne. He was now considering stopping fishing and on Thursday had suspended exports.
“Normally we’d have had maybe three lorries a day leaving Eyemouth. We’ve had to suspend everything,” Cook told BBC Radio Scotland. “Trading in Europe has now become a lottery and it’s a form of gambling, so you have to be very, very brave to put all your resources and energy into trying [to] press a button and find out that you don’t even pass the first hurdle. It’s a total loss of confidence.”
James Withers, chief executive of the trade body Scotland Food and Drink, said the industry, customs officials, Food Standards Scotland and the Scottish government were trying to find ways to streamline the processes. That could involve allowing sample inspections of lorries carrying only one species, such as farmed salmon, from one supplier.
“There is a major collective effort to work through all this between industry and government. That is critical because the knock-on effect of disruption is significant and can grind the seafood supply chain, from fishing boats to haulage, to a halt very quickly,” Withers said.
“On the back of a horrendous 2020 and a nightmare before Christmas due to the French border closure, the financial impact of that would be grave for many.”
Some industry officials argue privately that exporters have had months to prepare but are still not producing the right paperwork. That has increased delays. It had been known that in many cases, every crate would need to be inspected. But fishing bodies say there are too few vets at the certification hubs.
Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s rural economy secretary, said this week: “We know how frustrating, time-consuming and indeed costly this is for Scottish businesses – we warned the UK government that we needed much more clarity much sooner than we got on what the export process would involve.
“It is far better for problems to be identified and resolved here in Scotland and not have consignments being turned back hundreds of miles away or refused when they arrive at the end of their journey.”
