Scottish salmon farmers on Friday denounced the burden of new red tape and trade disruptions linked to Brexit, which they said caused a shortfall of several million pounds in January.
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"
Scottish salmon farmers have suffered losses of at least 11 million pounds (12.7 million euros) as a direct result of the changes brought about by Brexit,
" denounced their professional organization, the Scottish Salmon Producers Organization (SSPO ), in a press release.
She blasted "
the extra red tape, new layers of bureaucracy, delays and confusion caused by the end of the
post-Brexit
transition period
", which ended with the UK's exit from the single market and of the European customs union on January 1, and "
increasing costs
".
According to the SSPO, some of these "
significant delays
" have resulted in "
lost orders, missed deliveries, uncaught fish and heavily depreciated products
", with the European Union being the main overseas market.
Thus, 700 tonnes of salmon were not caught to prevent the fish from being "
wasted or destroyed
" and 1500 tonnes of sales were lost.
The shock of Brexit is added, according to the professional organization, to that of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Salmon farming employs more than 2,500 people in Scotland and supports more than 10,000 jobs in processing plants and the supply chain, according to figures cited in the release.
In all, more than 3,600 companies are linked to this sector.
Before the salmon farmers, seafood exporters had already expressed their dissatisfaction with Brexit, saying they were threatened by heavy paperwork and fearing that some of their perishable products, intended for the European market, ended up in the trash .
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