Urgent action is needed to address inconsistencies in the salmon export statistics published by the U.K. government in order to determine the full impact of Brexit, according to the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO).
Figures released by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for January this year state that just 86 metric tons (MT) of whole, fresh/chilled Atlantic salmon had been exported to Europe. However, official E.U. Eurostat import figures put the month’s figure at 4,500 MT, while Scottish salmon producers say they exported close to 5,000 MT of fish.
If HMRC’s January figures were correct, this would represent a 97 percent reduction in exports to the E.U. compared to the corresponding month of 2020, when 3,049 MT was shipped.
In a statement, SSPO said it had flagged the discrepancy with HMRC as soon as the figures were released in March, but a solution to the inaccuracy with such a key export commodity has yet to be found. It added that February’s export figures were more in line with expectations, but that the sector is looking for reassurances that the system and workflows for recording and reporting exports are now functioning properly.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee on 22 April, SSPO Director of Strategic Engagement Hamish Macdonell told MPs there was a real issue over the validity of the export statistics that had been put out by the U.K. government. Speaking outside the committee, he said that there had been “a big problem” at the very least in January in terms of the collation of the figures.
“Something happened to do with the way the figures were collected, and we don’t know who is to blame or where the problem has come from. But unless we can get a really proper baseline of how much fish is actually going into Europe, it is impossible to tell what the impact of Brexit is,” Macdonell said.
Responding to the issue, Undersecretary of State for Scotland David Duguid assured the committee that, “there is an investigation ongoing and the HMRC are looking into where that discrepancy has come from.”
Scottish salmon producers have had to contend with significant delays since the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December, 2020, and the full effects of Brexit came into effect. Despite improvements since January when it was taking many hours – and sometime days – to process orders of seafood for the continent, orders are still being held up because of the bureaucracy of the extra paperwork and lack of digitization, SSPO said.
“It now takes around an additional two hours for each seafood load to be processed and given an export health certificate for transport to the E.U. and, in some case, this process is taking four hours or longer,” it said. “These delays mean Scottish salmon risks not arriving in France on time, potentially leading to lost orders, discounted sales, and disgruntled customers.”
According to figures collated by the SSPO, Scotland’s salmon producers are spending GBP 200,000 (USD 277,671, EUR 230,320) a month on extra paperwork because of Brexit.
“This GBP 2.5 million (USD 3.5 million, EUR 2.9 million) annual bill will come on top of the delays, cancellations and problems which have already cost the sector millions of pounds in lost orders, lower prices and cancelled harvests,” the organization said.
According to HMRC, exports of Scottish salmon fell by 23 percent in 2020 to 72,155 MT.
Photo courtesy of Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation
