The Chair of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA) has responded to the news that the Scottish Government is to increase its economic link landing target of pelagic fish from 55 per cent to 70 per cent of catches that must be landed into Scottish fish processing factories as opposed to landing abroad where the price paid for the fish is higher.
“It is hugely unwelcome from a catching perspective to intervene again on the landing target when the 55 per cent figure has just been implemented in 2025 and the full impact of which has still to be assessed," said SPFA Chair Richard Williamson.
"The quota cuts for both mackerel and herring in 2026 are going to impact on both catchers and processors, and both sectors will endure a period of significant business risk.
"For the Scottish pelagic industry to thrive, it needs both a strong catching and processing sector, but in effect this new 70 per cent landing figure will mitigate the risk to processors whilst loading additional risk onto the catching sector, thus jeopardising the balance."
Williamson said that if businesses in the catching sector fail because of the new regulation, they could become prey for foreign investment.
"The pelagic fleet plays an important role in sustaining onshore infrastructure, which in turn supports the whitefish fleet and the many hundreds of under-10 metre vessels operating out of Shetland, Fraserburgh and Peterhead. Without locally owned and locally based pelagic vessels, many of the marine supply, electrical engineering and other support services that currently underpin the viability of operations for smaller vessels would cease to exist."
"The economic link landing target wasn’t introduced to deal with quota fluctuations, and it is a dangerous precedent to be intervening in this way now," added SPFA Chief Executive Ian Gatt. "What it effectively does is tie landing target percentages to the total allowable catch outcomes for mackerel and herring, which is not the way to foster a business environment where catchers can invest in the future. All this new measure does is create uncertainty.
"The catching and processing sectors need to come through this difficult period together and there should have been a balanced approach to support both, because if one part is weakened, then so is the other."
