It would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. In the 1970s, salmon was not a staple of the British diet – farmed salmon from UK waters was even rarer, a luxury item from specialist stores. Now, farmed Atlantic salmon is a staple in supermarkets. From its origins in the 1960s, it has expanded to supply more than 2.7 million tons of fish globally through a large-scale, intensive production system. It is now the world’s most valuable mariculture product, with Scotland producing more than 200,000 tonnes annually – which accounts for 7.1% of totally annual supply, behind only Norway and Chile globally – and exporting nearly half (to a value of £701 million in 2022). Over the last 60 years, salmon farming has evolved from small-scale operations into a high-tech, industrialised system. But where has this growth come from? It did not happen by accident. Market consolidation; technological advances in breeding, disease control, and feed efficiency; and favourable regulations, have enabled massive expansion of the industry. In Scotland, they have gone from a handful of experimental farms in the 1970s to 203 active sites between 2018 and 2021. In our research, we have looked at the rise of farmed salmon in the UK to find out how it happened and what it means. We spoke to key stakeholders from industry, research, government and policy advocacy in Scotland to understand how markets unimaginable not so long ago are now so dominant. A CHANGING WORLD Market making requires producers, retailers and consumers to combine and use the tools at their disposal to generate an infrastructure that does not necessarily determine but strongly encourages consumption. You can see how this has happened with farmed Atlantic salmon. We found efforts to promote salmon as an accessible, nutritious and sustainable product have shaped consumer demand. It is marketed as healthy, sustainable, and convenient, a poster child for modern aquaculture. Then there is the popularity of labels featuring images associated with Scotland, using wording such as ‘local’, ‘wild’ and ‘organic’. In 2024, the UK government approved legislation to allow farmed products to be marketed as ‘Scottish salmon’, a protection previously reserved for wild-caught fish. Accreditation and labelling help with health and sustainability perceptions. The Aquatic Stewardship Council certified 57 farm sites in Scotland, and through clever marketing work such as labelling, and product innovation, supermarkets turned salmon into a must-have item for health-conscious shoppers. A HEALTHY OPTION? There is no doubt salmon is nutritious. A 140g portion of fresh farmed salmon delivers more than 100% of an adult’s recommended intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, and vitamin D. That is why UK dietary guidelines recommend eating oily fish like salmon at least once a week. But salmon is comparable in nutrient profile to other aquatic foods – and the omega-3 fatty acid benefits are not as great when it comes to increasingly popular and common convenience products, which now account for more than a third of salmon retail. So, while salmon is marketed as a healthy food, the benefits may not be reaching everyone equally. It is the more affluent households buying fresh salmon fillets who are gaining the health advantages, not those eating fishcakes and the like. NOT SO GREEN Then there are the long-standing environmental impacts of salmon farming. Most of our interviewees raised negative sustainability perceptions from intensive farming, including declines in wild salmon populations, pollution, and impacts on local communities. 36 |
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