THE Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) is boosting its rural workforce amid growing demand from abroad.

The fish farming business plans to add 40 new jobs which will take its headcount in the Hebrides to more than 200.

There are five new permanent jobs at a recently opened site at Greanamull on Benbecula with a further temporary 35 posts in the processing plant at Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.

Those roles will run through to December and reflect the expected busier harvesting period in the company's northern operations over the coming months.

SSC said it has seen rapid growth in export sales in the first three months of the year into markets including France, the United States, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and China.

SSC employs around 400 staff across 60 sites around the Highlands, islands and west coast of Scotland.