Aquaculture sector - wider economic impacts: estimates

Footnotes

1 Scottish Sea Farms (2018), Impact Summary 2018, measuring ten years of farming Orkney waters, p.8. The relatively high level of pay in finfish production was a finding that also emerged from consultations with producers.

2 Tonnes of live fish weight were estimated from the survey responses and the share of total output was based on Marine Scotland’s 2018 Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey.

3 Fish feed is reported at within the ‘Manufacturing’ category for clarity. The analysis uses more granular industry data that is specific to animal feed production and reflects the fact the majority of raw materials are purchased from outside Scotland.

4 To classify feed spending correctly, the SIC classification of the primary product of two large feed producers – Ewos Limited and Biomar Limited – was considered. The primary activity of Ewos Limited, as reported by Companies House, is ‘01629 - Support activities for animal production not elsewhere classified”, whereas that Biomar Limited “10910 Manufacture of prepared feed for farm animals”. To establish which sector would be the most appropriate, turnover per job and staff costs per job were estimated from the annual accounts of the two companies and then compared to that from the following candidate sectors: 01 Crop and Animal Production, hunting and related activities; 10 Manufacture of Food Products; 20 Manufacture of Chemical and Chemical Products; and 10.91 Manufacture of prepared feed for farm animals. The sector that matched the companies the closest was “10.91 Manufacture of prepared feed for farm animals’..

5 Marine Harvest (2018), Salmon Farming Industry Handbook, p.57.

6 The direct GVA figures in this assessment are directly comparable to those published in the Marine Economic Statistics due to the inclusion of Aquaculture Processing. In addition, the latest figures published in the Marine Economic Statistics are for the year 2017, rather than 2018. In comparing the two estimates, it would suggest that the direct GVA of the production element of aquaculture decreased by around 12% between 2017 and 2018. This drop is reflected in the decrease in turnover of the main salmon producing companies.

7 The importance of the relationship between GVA and GNI/GNP in the context of the aquaculture sector emerged from consultations with Professor Hervey Gibson.

8 Scottish Government (2019), Scottish Annual Business Statistics (SABS).

9 Scottish Government (2019), Scottish Input-Output Tables.

10 The Input-Output tables treat animal and fish feeds as a single category. While this is not ideal, as fish feed constitutes such a large part of the supply chain, the import/domestic supply chain split of the overarching category was considered broadly similar to that of fish feed manufacturing and therefore the use of the statistics from the overarching category was considered acceptable.

11 Marine Scotland Science (2019), Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey 2018.

12 Seafish (2016), 2016 Seafood Processing Industry Report.

13 Marine Scotland Science (2019), Scottish Shellfish Farm Production Survey 2018.

14 Seafish (2018), Seafood Processing Enquiry Report.

15 Scottish Government (2019), Scottish shellfish farm production survey 2018

16 Poseidon (2017), Scottish Shellfish Development Critical Mass.

17 Scottish Sea Farms (2018), Impact Summary 2018, measuring 10 years of farming Orkney waters’, available at: https://www.scottishseafarms.com/media/1588/orkney-impact-summary-2018.pdf

18 UK Government (2019), Companies House, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/companies-house

19 Seafish (2018, Seafood Processing Enquiry Data.

20 Ibid.

21 Seafish (2019), Cutting Edge.

22 SRUC (2019), Trout for the Table, available: https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120184/fish_farming/242/trout_for_the_table/4

23 Scottish Government (2019), Scottish shellfish farm production survey 2018.

24 Poseidon (2017), Scottish shellfish development critical mass model.