Scottish Shellfish Farm Production Survey 2021

Introduction to the year 2021 survey

This report is based on the returns of an annual survey questionnaire sent to all active authorised shellfish farming businesses in Scotland. These are Official Statistics published by Marine Scotland Science in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The cooperation of the shellfish farming industry is gratefully acknowledged. The report author acknowledges Joanne Murphy, Sandy Murray, Keith Mutch, Edward Noble, Ronald Smith, Stuart Wallace and Andrea Warwick for their contributions to the production of this report.

Production survey questionnaires were sent to 120 businesses registered as active during 2021 (see Appendix 1). During 2021, three businesses became authorised and nine businesses rescinded their authorisation. Production figures for 2020 have been updated where 2019 figures had been substituted for the 2020 report. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacting on the supply of some data. For the 2021 survey 100% returns were received from businesses.

The survey showed that, of the 120 businesses authorised at the end of 2021, 69 recorded sales during that year. These 120 authorised businesses farmed 309 active sites, of which 165 (53%) placed shellfish on the market. Shellfish production by business and site is presented.

LA Munro

June 2022