Lex live: Salmon

Financial Times
Published: Jan 9 2004 13:08

If you thought salmon farmers might benefit from the discovery of a first case
of mad cow disease in the US, think again. Sales of farmed Atlantic salmon have
been growing rapidly in north America. Nutreco, the biggest fish in the
aquaculture pond, was predicting a further 16 per cent increase in US sales
volumes this year. That projection will now have to be revised down, after the
publication of research showing uncomfortably high levels of contaminants such
as dioxins and PCBs. The study - published not by some woolly environmentalists
but in Science, a serious magazine - suggests some Scottish farmed salmon is so
contaminated that it should be eaten no more than three times year.

The fish-farming industry has, predictably, leapt to the barricades. Its
apologists argue that the concentrations of contaminants fall well below the
levels viewed as acceptable by food safety agencies. They also argue that the
risks are, in any case, outweighed by the health benefits of eating fish rich
in fatty acids. It is more surprising that the UK Food Standards Agency should
spring quite so automatically to the fish farmers' defence.

When a product tastes as grim as most farmed salmon, however, consumers are
going to be willing to believe the worst. The latest research may not stop
customers from eating farmed salmon altogether, but it will certainly limit the
scope to raise prices from the rock-bottom levels which have helped fuel
consumption. That means that any hopes for the emergence of Nutreco, or smaller
fry such as Fjord Seafood, from their prolonged slump seem likely to be dashed.

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