A SCOTTISH salmon farm in Orkney has been named Outstanding Producer of the Year by Marks and Spencer.
The Scottish Sea Farms’s team in Wyre won the accolade at the Farming for the Future Awards 2018.
The 1909-tonne capacity farm was established by Scottish Sea Farms in 2015 to help meet the growing demand for responsibly farmed salmon including M&S Lochmuir salmon.
It differs from most other farms in that it performs a special dual role – it rears its own salmon from smolt to adulthood, but it also acts as a nursery for young salmon headed to neighbouring Eday where conditions are more tidal.
The salmon are only transferred out to Eday when they are large enough to thrive in the strong tidal flow.
Judges said they were impressed with how much the team, led by Phil Boardman, had achieved in terms of its predator resistant containment system which has reduced the number of seal attacks.
The farm has also invested in the training and development of the team and easy-clean nets which unlike standard nets or the hulls of ships and boats, don’t require copper-based anti-fouling, helping preserve the sea’s own balance of this naturally occurring heavy metal.
The combined result over the last crop was no escapes, no seals shot, no medicinal bath treatments and low mortalities.
Phil Boardman said: “Both farm teams – Wyre and Eday – are proud of the results achieved and rightly so as both have worked hand in hand to create the best environments in which to rear our salmon.
“We have a really great mix of people, some of whom are locals while others have moved into the area bringing new skills and knowledge.”
One such new employee is 27-year-old Matthew Jackson from Milton Keynes, who joined Scottish Sea Farms as a graduate trainee and worked under Boardman while gaining a Modern Apprenticeship in Aquaculture to Level 3, and will now take over as farm manager of Wyre, enabling Phil to focus on Eday.
The awards presentation took place on Thursday, the first day of the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston in Edinburgh.
Scottish Sea Farms’s Orkney regional manager, Richard Darbyshire, accepted the Outstanding Producer Award on behalf of the Wyre team.
He said: “Scottish Sea Farms sets itself exacting standards and the results show in the quality of our product.
“M&S have actively encouraged these high standards since day one, however to have them recognised with a Farming for the Future Award provides added motivation to keep seeking new and better ways of doing things.”
The Outstanding Producer title is the latest in a series of M&S Farming for the Future Award wins for Scottish Sea Farms, with previous successes including the Innovation Award, Young Producer, Rural Communities, Global Champion of Champions and Plan A in Action.
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