Julie Hesketh-Laird, chief executive of Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation made the plea to Nicola Sturgeon at a roundtable summit in Edinburgh yesterday.
The SSPO leader wanted make sure that Scotland has fast and efficient trading arrangements to get food exports to market as quickly as possible after Brexit as reported in the Scotsman.
The First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party met yesterday with representatives from the fishing sector to discuss the impact of Brexit.
“We must ensure the home business environment in Scotland is really supportive,” Ms Hesketh-Laird said.
“It is critical we have really efficient and fast trading arrangements. Infrastructure at home is really important so that we can get stuff from Scotland direct to our markets.”
Helpful and positive discussions with the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary earlier – with focus on continued growth of our valuable #ScottishSalmon sector https://t.co/ZS4z1w6ied
— Julie Hesketh-Laird (@JulieHL) August 16, 2018
Ms Hesketh-Laird also added that the China market was vital to the industry and emphasised the need to get farmed salmon, which is perishable, on to freight aircraft quickly while on ice.
Scottish salmon is the UK’s biggest food exporter.
