Irish salmon farmers have welcomed new EU curbs on cheap farmed salmon imports from Norway, Chile, Iceland and the Faeroe islands.
The new measures approved by the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Peter Mandelson, came into effect last night and involve a minimum import price of €3 per kilo for gutted fish and set quotas.
Norway is a global leader in farmed Atlantic salmon production, currently growing 500,000 tonnes of farmed salmon annually. Its under-price sales into Europe have had a devastating impact on Irish and Scottish producers, who are also trying to compete with imports from Chile, Iceland and the Faeroe islands.
The €70 million Irish salmon farming industry currently produces 15,000 tonnes annually, and employs 600 full-time and 1,200 full-time equivalent employees. Some 20 per cent of Irish production is organic, focusing on quality markets on the Continent.
The industry has undergone a dramatic rationalisation in the past three years due to a combination of tough market conditions, disease factors and a substantial fish kill at three farms in south Donegal almost two years ago.
Irish and Scottish farmers combined forces to create a European Salmon Producers' Group (ESPG), which aimed to make a case for setting import conditions on the larger non-EU producers.
A spokesman for the group said he was "delighted" at the move, which was taken in the teeth of "enormous resistance" from Denmark, France and Germany. He said he hoped Mr Mandelson would maintain his position in spite of pressure from other member states.
Late last year, Irish fish farming representatives accepted that State aspirations to double production or expand to 50,000 tonnes annually were unrealistic, and the emphasis had to be placed on quality rather than quantity.
