11-05-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Why France is asking hard questions about Scottish salmon
"It's a mark of quality to know that it comes from Scotland," said one.
Another said "I look for the Scottish salmon, the Label Rouge" referring to the quality assurance label provided by the French Ministry of Agriculture. Scottish salmon was the first non-French product ever to be awarded the endorsement.
"However, behind this good reputation organisations are worried," said the TF1 voiceover. "We filmed illnesses, malformations and dead Scottish salmon."
The video package then showed various shots of malformed salmon, dead fish floating at the top of the water, and alleged unclean conditions in pens.
"Should we remove salmon from our plates?" the network asked.
The perception the French have of Scottish salmon matters - it makes up 62% of exports, worth £462million last year.
Last year a shipment arrived in the country which contained prohibited steroids, while last week a batch was recalled due to possible listeria contamination.
In October 2024 Le Monde, one of France's papers of record, carried an in-depth report based on data from PinkBombs, a campaign by two French NGOs, warning of an "ecological and social bomb" associated with farmed salmon.
In 2021 France 5, a free-to-air channel, published a special report into salmon farming on its environmental programme Sur le Front.
Titled 'The Truth About Salmon', its reporters joined 'the bete noire of the salmon industry', Don Staniford, to film conditions on a farm.
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Once scene sees the activist show host Hugo Clément a colour palette known as the SalmoFan, the industry standard, ranging from light pink to deep red, explaining that by feeding the fish certain foods the farms can create any hue they desire.
The flesh of wild salmon is naturally pink in hue, because they consume a large amount of shrimp and small fish which contain an antioxidant called asataxanthin.
In farmed salmon this is added to the feed the fish are given - typically a combination of fish meal, oils and vegetable material - with the levels adjusted depending on the desired colour.
There is no suggestion this practice is harmful either to the fish or the consumer, but were the anti-oxidant not added the flesh of the salmon would be grey. Industry research shows that a deeper red colour is perceived as indicating higher quality.
The practice of farming salmon dates back to Norway in the 1960s, with the first farm in Scotland established at Loch Ailort in Inverness-shire in 1965 and the first harvest in 1971.
Today there are more than 200 salmon farms around the Scottish coast, but the industry has long been controversial.
A salmon (Image: Supplied) The fish are reared in pens in either salt or fresh water, then harvested when they reach maturity.
Advocates say this approach is more sustainable, as it protects wild stocks, as well as being more environmentally friendly than other protein sources.
In addition, with the farms generally located in rural areas, they provide well-paid and highly-skilled jobs for communities facing the threat of depopulation.
However, opponents have raised serious concerns over the welfare of the fish, the impact on the aquatic ecosystem and potential hidden environmental costs.
Welfare is a key concern. Both 2022 and 2023 were record-breaking years for mortality, though 2024 did bring a drop.
In addition, farm conditions can lead to infestations of sea lice, with often thousands of fish in each pen.
The tiny, translucent copepods are harmless to humans but attack themselves to the skin of salmon and other fish, feeding on their skin and blood causing pain, distress and, in extreme cases, even death.
On farms which lie near wild salmon routes there's a risk of cross-contamination, with SEPA identifying 19 which pose a 'high risk' to wild salmon. A 2017 study found sea trout swimming close to salmon farms in Scotland and Ireland had "significantly higher" levels of lice infestation than those further away.
Salmon with sea lice (Image: .) Management of sea lice often involves using antibiotics and pesticides, with the potential for these chemicals to flow out of pens and into surrounding waters.
Mr Staniford, director of Scottish Salmon Watch, said: "Atlantic salmon in Scotland do not leap up waterfalls onto your plate – they are factory farmed in torture chambers where cruelty and suffering has morphed the King of Fish from a majestic leaper into a disease-ridden leper."
Scotland's main rival in the French salmon market, Norway, has historically had far more stringent regulation on farming.
The Scandinavian nation imposes an upper limit of 0.2 adult sea lice per fish in the sensitive period when young wild salmon (smolt) swim out from Norwegian rivers and into the Atlantic.
Scotland has no requirements around this period.
In addition, Norway uses a 'traffic light system' which regulates production based on the perceived threat to wild salmon from sea lice, adjusting farm output in specific zones (green, yellow, or red) to protect wild stocks.
A report published in 2018 made 65 recommendations for industry reform in Scotland, including the mandatory and immediate reporting of fish mortalities and disease outbreaks; as well as the use of chemical medicines to treat sea lice infestations.
In addition it called for new farms to be positioned away from established migratory routes for wild salmon. In Scotland, industry regulator SEPA is looking to introduce 'protection zones' in which operators would be required to keep lice numbers to low levels and would face additional monitoring.
However, it would leave it up to operators to decide which methods they employ to achieve the targets.
Members of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee warned in January this year that there had been a "lack of progress" in implementing the reforms.
Norway has also taken a different approach to taxation of the industry.
In 2023 it proposed a 40% tax on salmon farm profits - on top of the standard 22% corporation tax - which was later scaled back to 25% on the proviso that the bulk goes to municipal and county councils in coastal communities.
The UK does not have any specific tax on fish farming - resource rent taxation and corporation tax are both reserved to Westminster - and indeed 99% of production comes from just six firms, three of which are owned by Norwegian companies.
This week Loch Duart, an independent farm with eight sea sites and two hatcheries in Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides, launched what it called the 'Loch Duart Standard'.
Independently managed and assessed by Leigh Grant Consulting, it focuses on small-scale farming, more on-site audits and independent verification.
The company sells 60% of its produce to France, and has a sales office in Lorient in Brittany.
It has been accused by campaign group WildFish of using loopholes in legislation to cover up high levels of sea lice, something it denies.
The company says the allegations are based on a "misinterpretation of data" to "spread untruths".
A spokesperson for Salmon Scotland said: 'Like all livestock production there's always the possibility that a small number of animals will not make it to harvest.
'Our salmon farmers care for their fish daily and will take every opportunity to quickly remove individual fish from the healthy population, ensuring they cannot be sold for consumption.'
