Seafood processing represents a major growth opportunity for the north-east Scotland economy, according to a study which concludes the sector can anchor employment and value-adding activity in coastal communities for the long term, writes Ian McConnell.
According to the partners behind the study, its findings “support the case for transformational investment to deliver business growth [and] new jobs and increase processing activity, particularly in Fraserburgh, Peterhead and Aberdeen”.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell on Brexit: Stupefying Tory arithmetic and the true, sorry story
The region’s seafood sector expects the volume of fish landed to increase after Brexit, according to the “Future Proofing the Seafood Industry” study commissioned by Aberdeenshire Council. The study, covering the Aberdeenshire and City of Aberdeen local authority areas, was commissioned on behalf of funders North East of Scotland Fisheries Local Action Group, Seafood Scotland and Opportunity North East.
It found north-east Scotland’s ports account for 57 per cent of fish landed in Scotland each year. The 200,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish landed in the region is worth more than £233 million. It also found the the region’s £700m turnover seafood-processing sector employs around 4,000 people and is “nationally significant”.
More than 70 seafood processing, manufacturing and value-adding businesses operate in the area, according to the study. And the industry is a substantial exporter of whitefish, pelagic species and shellfish to the European Union and rest of the world.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel