Fishing Industry

Anne Begg Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Dame Anne Begg (Aberdeen South) (Lab)]

I realise that time is now short, so I will try to keep my comments brief. Let me start by paying tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Great Grimsby (Austin Mitchell) and for Aberdeen North (Mr Doran) in their last fisheries debate. Both have been stalwarts of all the fisheries debates that have taken place since I entered the House. I particularly wish to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen North, simply because of the help and support he has given me as a constituency MP with the fishing interests, particularly in the processing sector. Whenever I have been at a loss as to how to proceed with a case, he has been there with guidance and advice. He has done a huge amount of work on behalf of a particular group of processors who feel that they have been hard done by in the past because of the prevalence of black fish and the consequences it had on the industry, which he mentioned in his speech.

I will confine my remarks to the processing side because, as my hon. Friend said, very few boats are coming out of Aberdeen harbour these days. The fish market is in his constituency, just over the border and a stone’s throw from mine, but a vibrant processing industry remains in Aberdeen. In the north-east of Scotland the industry is worth £500 million a year, so it is still a big, important industry and it has not been completely overtaken by oil and gas, although that is perhaps what we talk about more in this Chamber. The processors feel a wee bit aggrieved, because they feel that they get left out in a lot of these discussions—this afternoon’s debate has been almost wholly about the catching side. They think that is perhaps because the catching sector has a much more effective lobby, and that is true in respect of the information I received for this afternoon’s debate. The processors also feel that they are not always listened to, but they are an important part of the sector.

The sustainability of the processors’ business is dependent on what the catching side does. They tell me that fishing is about hunting a raw material, and for processors that means spikes and troughs in their business, depending on the fish that have been landed. As their business comes in fits and starts, it is difficult for them to sustain their business throughout the low times. Strange things happen in the industry as a result of unintended consequences. For instance, if Scottish haddock is expensive, as it often is, it goes for fishmeal and the consumer gets the cheaper Norwegian and Icelandic haddock, all of which are bigger and are processed and cut to look like Scottish haddock. That cannot right, but obviously the supermarkets are looking for the cheapest raw material they can buy in order to sell it. The Government and the Scottish Government need to look at that problem.

The processors also tell me that there is an imbalance in the industry. They have lobbied Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment, but they feel he is not listening and that they are somehow the poor relation when it comes to any decisions taken on the fishing industry. They also feel that they face a different problem relating to EU policy—I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Kelvin Hopkins) will be delighted to hear about yet another thing he can beat the EU around the head with. It has been brought about because of the horsemeat scandal and the labelling. The processors tell me that the labelling that the EU hopes to impose on the industry will simply not be workable, because it will require them to segregate the different fish, and that will bring their production to a halt. Let me explain how that would happen.

A big processor does not buy its raw materials from a single source and it might make 20 to 30 purchases from 15 to 20 boats. From the scientific point of view, the vessels and the area of the sea that the catch comes from is important, but for processors to have to say which fish came from which purchase and from which boat is just too difficult—it is nonsensical. Their fear is that jobs could be lost as a result. They will continue to adopt, as they have managed to do over the years in the face of a lot of fairly cheap imports. That is still the case, because the supermarkets are putting pressure on the prices. If the supermarkets want breaded haddock, they want it at the cheapest price and they do not care whether it is Norwegian haddock or the much superior Scottish haddock. In this case, the cheapest is not the best.

As I say, I pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Great Grimsby and for Aberdeen North. They say that it is their last fisheries debate, but I hope that it is not mine, and a number of hon. Members might feel the same. Our future is in the hands of our electors, but I hope that on fishing they feel that we have represented them well in Parliament this afternoon.