As the UK negotiates lower tariffs for exports to India, the body certifying organic salmon has warned of unacceptable welfare outcomes on salmon farms. By Nick Hughes.

How’s this for a neat illustration of the tension surrounding farmed salmon?

Just days after the UK Government negotiated tariff-free access to India for fresh and frozen salmon, the Soil Association threatened to stop certifying organic farmed salmon unless meaningful progress is made on improving welfare and environmental standards within the sector.

The evidence is increasingly compelling that farmed salmon is both an economic powerhouse and environmental menace. Like the Scotch whisky sector, which will also benefit from tariff reductions under the India deal, the salmon industry is a jewel in the crown of UK PLC. Exports alone were worth almost £1bn in 2024, according to the Food and Drink Federation, with salmon’s 42% year-on-year export growth far exceeding that achieved by any other top ten revenue-generating food and drink category. Add in the 12,000 livelihoods supported in Scotland, the heartland of the UK’s farmed salmon sector, and you can understand why salmon is a top priority for UK trade negotiators negotiating improved market access overseas.

Yet while sales grow so too does salmon’s reputation for causing environmental harm. The Scottish farmed salmon sector continues to be beset by issues surrounding poor welfare, mass mortality and unsustainable feed sources; so much so that the Soil Association has warned it may stop certifying organic salmon altogether.

The announcement follows an 18-month review which looked at welfare and environmental problems facing salmon farms across the entire Scottish salmon farming industry. It concluded that despite organic standards being the strictest in the salmon industry, they are currently not going far enough to tackle the risk of issues occurring on farms. A group of charities and NGOs had previously written an open letter to the Soil Association in January 2024 calling for it to remove organic certification from salmon and trout farms, arguing it was “a reputational risk for your organisation, misleading to consumers and an unacceptable greenwash of an inherently unsustainable industry”.

Soil Association managing director James Cashmore says the clear message from the organisation’s review is that the risks to fish welfare and environmental outcomes on organic salmon farms are not at an acceptable level. “If we don’t see meaningful progress within a year, we will need to withdraw our involvement in setting organic standards for salmon,” he added.

Salmon is not just an export success story; it’s grown to become the UK public’s favourite fish to eat with farmed and wild caught salmon combined accounting for nearly a third of all fish bought in the UK. But farmed salmon has long been a target for environmental campaigners who point to persistent issues with sea lice outbreaks, high usage of harmful chemicals and a reliance on wild caught fish and imported soy for feed which is contributing to the collapse of fish stocks and fuelling deforestation. The Soil Association’s intervention suggests buying organic salmon is not a silver bullet solution to removing these risks hence why the certification body is seeking substantial reform of standards. 

Tough stance

Proposed changes include taking a tougher stance on mass mortality of salmon. Sites with two or more mass mortality events would have their certification temporarily suspended, after which a full site suitability assessment would be required and the site would be decertified unless the licensee could demonstrate that adequate steps were in place to prevent reoccurrence.

The charity has also said it doesn’t believe salmon farming can be sustainable in the long term while it depends on deltamethrin, a persistent chemical used as a veterinary treatment for lice, which risks being released into the marine environment. Emamectin benzoate and azamethiphos, two of the most harmful veterinary medicine treatments used by the sector, are already banned and deltamethrin can only be used as a last resort a maximum of twice per year on organic farms. The new proposal involves a total phase out of deltamethrin over the long term, with the first step to prevent it from being released into the marine environment within the next 12 months. 

On the issue of feed, organic salmon producers would no longer be permitted to use whole fish from certified sustainable fisheries and instead only able to use sustainably sourced waste and trimmings to feed salmon in marine sites. Ingredients from sustainably sourced waste and trimmings are already prioritised in organic, but the Soil Association says this proposal would go further in preventing fish being caught primarily to feed farmed salmon.

It also wants to see greater action from the Scottish Government to improve sustainability, including tighter controls on site suitability for salmon farms and legislation that would set specific baseline standards for the welfare of farmed fish.

Policymakers, for their part, will continue to weigh up the case for tighter regulation against the effect on economic growth. Recent evidence suggests those pushing for tighter regulation of farmed salmon are swimming against the tide. The UK Government, for example, has successfully battled to erase the word ‘farmed’ from Scottish salmon products, a move campaigners say puts transparency and consumer trust at risk.

The paradox surrounding farmed salmon – good for the economy, not so good for the environment – will not easily be resolved.

Related articles

Does seafood hold the key to future food security?
With land under pressure from food production many believe our oceans can help meet the world’s nutritional needs