The world’s biggest onshore salmon farm is to be built in Scotland in a move that could revolutionize production of the increasingly popular fish.
Dunkeld-based FishFrom will this week submit a planning application for the GBP 15 million farm in which the fish will be produced without ever swimming in rivers or the sea.
The farm will be constructed inside a 3.5-acre warehouse at Tayinloan, which will produce 3,000 metric tons of salmon a year — about twice the average sea-based farm. FishFrom plans to ship out 800,000 salmon a year from the site, supplying retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Waitrose and Youngs Seafood. It already supplies Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Berkshire, The Fat Duck, with farmed trout. The company has plans for another onshore farm on the Scottish mainland and hopes to role out the model worldwide in a bid to meet the growing demand for artificially raised fish.
“Closed containment” systems have the backing of the Perth-based conservation body Atlantic Salmon Trust (AST), which is leading moves to save wild salmon from being wiped out in Scotland’s rivers, because of their perceived environmental benefits. The trust’s patron is Prince Charles.
Scotland’s sea-loch based salmon-farming industry has faced criticism that it pollutes the environment and damages stocks of wild salmon. Onshore farms remove the threat of mass escapes caused by storm damage to offshore cages.
