SQS launches ‘Naturally They’re the Best’ campaign to present the facts about Scottish salmon farming

Advertisements will appear in Scottish and UK national newspapers from tomorrow and for four weeks, setting the record straight about working practices and standards that are required for salmon farmers to be Scottish Quality Salmon (SQS) members. When it comes to Scottish Quality Salmon farms, the campaign maintains that ‘naturally they’re the best’.

The campaign is being part-funded by The Crown Estate.

“We believe that Scottish Quality Salmon is the best quality you can get,” says Scottish Quality Salmon chief executive, Brian Simpson. “This is regularly supported by blind tastings at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh and by consumer taste panels run by an internationally accredited organisation in Paris. We are particularly proud of our reputation in France, a nation of food lovers, where we have held the coveted Label Rouge quality award for the past 12 years. It is time to put the record straight to emphasise the very real quality of our farm management and the quality of our salmon products.”

“We are pleased to be supporting this initiative”, commented Ian Pritchard, Marine Estate Manager (Scotland) for The Crown Estate. “It emphasises the high standards maintained on Scottish salmon farms and underlines the fact that we have an industry of which Scotland and the rest of the UK can be proud.”

The advertisements feature striking black and white photography and reinforce many of the positive aspects associated with salmon farming in Scotland.

The ads make the point that SQS farms are subject to the most rigorous and regular independent inspection. The advertising is supported with much more extensive information on-line at the SQS website (www.scottishsalmon.co.uk) and in a new consumer leaflet available through retailers and fishmongers.

The campaign, which will run for four weeks with a budget of c. £200,000, will act as a curtain raiser for a £3 million campaign funded equally by the industry and the Scottish Executive. It will promote the health benefits of eating Scottish farmed salmon. The Food Standards Agency announced recently (24/6/04) that people should eat oily fish, including salmon, for the significant health benefits it confers, especially pregnant women and children. It identified, for the first time, that the majority of the population could eat up to 300% more oily fish every week than had previously been suggested.

Scottish Quality Salmon Advertisements featuring in Scottish & UK National Newspapers

Brian Simpson added: “People have been distorting science and seeking to discredit salmon farming for too long. It is time that the industry stood up and said: ‘We are proud of what we do, the way we do it, and what we produce’.”

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Notes to Editors:

• The advertising campaign will appear in Scottish and UK daily and Sunday national newspapers. Campaign development has been managed by Chrome Consulting, with creative execution by Spirit Advertising. The photographers were Nigel Millard (freelance) and John Sheerin (Forth Photography).

• Scottish Quality Salmon is dedicated to improving the quality and sustainability of salmon farming in Scotland - from feed companies through to salmon smokers and processors - the whole production chain. Membership now represents 65% of the tonnage produced by the Scottish salmon farming industry.

• Scottish Quality Salmon arranges sensory analysis panels run by Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh to ensure high product quality standards are met as part of the SQS Product Certification Schemes, which are independently audited to EN45011 standards. Additional sensory analysis panels in Paris are run by Eurofins, comparing consumer attitudes towards farmed salmon from Scotland and other countries. Label Rouge Scottish salmon is consistently preferred by consumers in these tests.

• The Crown Estate is not a government department or a business interest of the monarch. It is closer in form to a commercial property management company. It manages one of the largest property portfolios in the UK, which generates around £170 million each year for the Treasury. The marine estate is the largest and most diverse portfolio within The Crown Estate, containing around 55% of the UK foreshore, approximately half of all estuary beds and tidal rivers, and the seabed out to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit.

• The Crown Estate has earmarked up to £600,000 to be spent over the next two years as a contribution towards an aquaculture industry 'recovery package'. This funding complements an existing commitment to both aquaculture research and The Crown Estate's broader Marine Stewardship Fund and makes The Crown Estate's total reinvestment in the marine environment over the next two years more than £1million.

• The Crown Estate has a duty under The Crown Estate Act to maintain and enhance thevalue of its estate and the return obtained from it for the Treasury, but with due regard to the requirements of good management. As the owner of much of the foreshore and seabed, The Crown Estate charges rent for its development and use. The Crown Estate also has a role to play in the planning process for fish and shellfish farms under the current 'interim scheme' but welcomes the prospect of early transfer of this role to local authorities, due after Scottish Parliamentary legislation perhaps as early as spring 2005.

• The Scottish Executive funding comes through the Financial Instrument for FisheriesGuidance (FIFG) which is the European structural fund that contributes to achieving the goals of the Common Fisheries Policy.

07/07/2004

For information contact:

Julie Edgar Scottish Quality Salmon Tel: 01738 587000 Mobile: 07899 875151

Ken Hughes Scottish Quality Salmon Mobile: 07974 173739
Rob Metcalfe Chrome Consulting Ltd Mobile: 07947 761942

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