SCOTTISH seafood firms are more reliant on European workers than other processing firms in the rest of the UK, according to new figures.

Marine Scotland, who are a Scottish Government department, say their survey of seafood processing firms found that around 58 per cent of staff were from European Economic Area (EEA) countries compared to 42 per cent for the whole of the UK.

In their analysis of the survey, Marine Scotland say it has become more “challenging” in recent years to recruit British workers.

Being unable to recruit willing European workers has left some firms fearing Brexit might be “a significant threat to their business’ operational viability”.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “With the majority of EEA employees working on permanent contracts, and likely to be living here on a long-term basis, processors are rightly concerned for the future and the potential loss of skilled and experienced food processing employees.

“This study backs up recent analysis which found EU nationals contribute more than £4.4 billion a year to our economy and shows exactly why we value the contribution they make in our communities.

“We will continue to show EU nationals that they are welcome here and call for free movement of people, which is clearly in the best interests of Scotland and the UK as a whole.”

The concerns from Marine Scotland came as Westminster’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology issued a report warning of Brexit crippling food producers because it would become impossible to compete at world market prices.

Sixty per cent of the UK’s food, feed and drink exports go to the EU. The group’s chairwoman, Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, said this was why a deal needed to be struck sooner rather than later.

“There are serious concerns that if negotiators don’t value farmers enough and build poorly managed trade deals that reflect this – particularly a US-UK deal – it could trigger a race to the bottom in terms of standards and ability of our own farmers to compete,” she said.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has previously insisted the UK will not accept a trade deal that will weaken environmental or animal welfare standards.

But yesterday, Britain’s Brexit Trade Secretary Liam Fox was said to be considering signing up to the 11- nation Trans Pacific-Partnership (TPP) despite the UK being 3600 miles away from the nearest signatory. If the UK does join it will be the only member not bordering the Pacific Ocean or the South China Sea.

That agreement, originally between countries like Japan and Singapore, as well as Canada and the US, is being renegotiated after President Donald Trump called it a “potential disaster” and pulled out in January 2016.

A daily newspaper reported that exploratory talks had already begun, but Fox downplayed the report saying that would be premature and the UK would wait and see what terms looked in a TPP without America.

“We don’t know what the success of the TPP is going to yet look like, because it isn’t yet negotiated.

“So it would be a little bit premature for us to be wanting to sign up to something that we’re not sure what the final details will look like.

“However, we have said that we want to be an open, outward- looking country, and therefore it would be foolish for us to rule out any particular outcomes for the future.

“So we’ll keep an open mind, and we’ll want to talk to our global trading partners.”

Fox added that the IMF and OECD suggest 90 per cent of global growth in trade will come from beyond Europe: “We have to look to see where those markets will be,” he said.

“We need to look to these big growing international markets.”

“That’s where we need to grow our trade and investment because that is what will produce our income as a country in the future.”

The 11 TPP signatories accounted for less than eight per cent of UK exports last year. Germany alone makes up 11 per cent.