Salmon firm netted £5 million in government handouts

Salmon farming companies have enjoyed more funding from the government than they pay in tax, according to a report published by sustainable food advocates Feedback Global this morning (Wednesday).

The UK government’s seafood fund awarded Scottish Sea Farms, one of Shetland’s two major companies, £5 million over the 2022/23 financial year.

Over that same time the company paid little more than half that, £2.8m, in taxes and made almost £15m in profits.

The seafood fund was established, the government say,  “to support the long term future and sustainability of the UK fisheries and seafood sector”.

Feedback Global’s director of campaigns, Natasha Hurley, called the figures “truly shocking”.

“Public money is being given to wealthy salmon farming corporations whose shareholders are netting big profits at the expense of wild fish populations and communities around the world.”

Industry group Salmon Scotland called the report “desperate stuff” and Feedback Global as “full-time, anti-farming campaigners”.

Scottish Sea Farms has been approached for comment, as has the department of environment food and rural affairs, which administers the government’s seafood fund. 

Read the full story in this week’s issue of The Shetland Times, out Friday 14th March.