Whilst the AFFtheClyde campaign opposing the four proposed Dawnfresh fish farms at Loch Long and on the Clyde has been gaining momentum over the past months, there has been little attention focussed on another multinational fish farm company in Argyll continuing to curry favour with the local populous via its sponsorship of local events.
This week it’s the turn of Cowal Highland Gathering to ‘celebrate’ its sixth year of sponsorship from the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC). In its press-release SSC waxes lyrical about its involvement in the event, from the creation of a special developed ‘Cowal Quasquicentennial Celebration Recipe’ in the ‘family kitchen’ to the commissioning of a ‘visual scribe’ to create a live mural of the event.
The company which according to a report is a finalist in the 2019 Responsible Business of the Year awards, employs around 600 staff at 60 sites on the west coast of Scotland.
The Scottish Salmon Company name of course is a misnomer. SSC is Scottish in name only. Although headquartered in Edinburgh, it’s registered in Jersey and listed on the Norwegian Stock Exchange in Oslo with majority shares being held by a Swiss company believed to be linked to Ukrainian businessman Yury Lopatinsky, who also owns a number of properties in Edinburgh.
Local sponsorship in Scotland’s rural communities is of course a smart move. According to an SSC press-release, £78,000 has been donated to local communities. These initiatives range from learn to swim programmes and judo clubs to Highland Games sponsorship. Of course it makes good corporate sense to provide funding in these communities which are increasingly becoming starved of other sources of income, however £78k may be considered a drop in the ocean for a company which the BBC reported as having revenues of £53.5m for the first quarter of 2019 – up from £43.3m in the same period last year. Other than employment for a very few, profits from these huge sums leave the country and do little to benefit local communities who are going to be affected by the fish farms for decades to come.
SSC has of course much to benefit from these rural sponsorships. The growing environmental concerns of aquaculture is gaining traction daily. The mainstream media (even the local press) is taking notice of the environmental disaster that open cage fish farming is creating. Given the problems with sea lice, fish escapes, toxic and effluent discharges from the farms as well as animal welfare issues, the industry has a great deal to contend with, hence the local charm offensive.
Is it not time for the Cowal Highland Gathering to take an ethical approach regarding where it derives its funding and ensure that its sponsors are contributing to our environment, not destroying it?