Last week saw the launch of the annual Scottish Food and Drink Fortnight, Scotland’s largest annual celebration of fresh, local and seasonal produce. The event provides opportunities for Scottish food and drink producers to showcase their products and tell not only the country, but the world about the quality and provenance of Scotland’s natural larder.
For me, it’s been time to find out more about Scottish salmon farming, and as part of my ‘Fortnight Food Adventure’, I got the chance to visit Marine Harvest, one of the country’s and the industry’s leading producers. The company is one of the largest seafood companies in the world and the largest producer of Atlantic salmon.
My visit was organised by Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation the body representing the country’s salmon farming industry, and took me to one of Marine Harvest’s freshwater sites and processing plants on the West coast of Scotland. Having very little knowledge of salmon farming, it was chance for me to find out first hand about the industry producing sustainable top quality salmon and Scotland’s number one export.
The day started in Fort William where Steve Bracken from Marine Harvest outlined the company’s history, followed by a fascinating session on how salmon is farmed at the various locations in Scotland’s freshwater and sea lochs. Later, a visit to a freshwater site allowed me to see the farming process at close hand and to gain a fuller understanding of the different stages in the life of a farmed salmon
Interestingly, my fellow guests on the trip were a party of French Fishmongers, also keen to learn about our salmon farming as Scottish Salmon was the first ‘non French’ product to be awarded the prestigious Label Rouge for superior quality and taste.
In addition to this, Scottish farmed salmon has been awarded European PGI, (protected geographical indication) placing it alongside Scotch Beef and Arbroath Smokies as products of distinct, regional characteristics.
At the state of the art processing plan in Fort William, I watched a slick and impressive operation as the freshly harvested salmon arrived for processing.
Arriving in large tankers, the salmon were immediately on the move. The various processes ensuring that suppliers were guaranteed the freshest quality Scottish farmed salmon, and confidence for consumers that the salmon on their plates was the freshest available. Two hours later the salmon I saw arriving was packed and ready to head out to customers in the UK and across the world.
“As provenance, sustainability and quality are becoming ever more valued by customers, it is heartening to know that Scottish salmon ticks all the boxes” Scott Landsburgh, Chief Executive of Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation
For great recipes for cooking salmon and find out more about salmon farming by downloading the Marine Harvest App– itunes.apple.com/us/app/
You can follow my salmon journey in the next post as I cook some of this fantastic fish on the Scottish Salmon Producers stand at Eat Drink Discover Scotland.
My thanks to Scottish Salmon Producers and marine Harvest for hosting me on this trip.