Scottish Shellfish Farm Production Survey 2020

Introduction to the year 2020 survey

This report is based on the returns of an annual survey questionnaire sent to all active authorised shellfish farming businesses in Scotland. These are Official Statistics published by Marine Scotland Science in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The cooperation of the shellfish farming industry is gratefully acknowledged. The report author acknowledges Sandy Murray, Keith Mutch, Edward Noble, Lorraine Nzvede, Ronald Smith, Amanda Walker, Stuart Wallace and Andrea Warwick for their contributions to the production of this report.

Production survey questionnaires were sent to 125 businesses registered as active during 2020 (see Appendix 1, page 15). During 2020, two business became authorised and three businesses rescinded their authorisation. One business’s survey returns were not received for 2020 so their production estimates production provided in 2019 were used. The relevant sections will be updated in the 2021 report once the actual figures are obtained. Production figures for 2019 have been updated where 2018 figures had been substituted for the 2019 report. This was due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacting on the supply of some data during 2020.

The survey showed that, of the 125 businesses authorised at the end of 2020, 72 recorded sales during that year. These 125 authorised businesses farmed 313 active sites, of which 167 (53%) placed shellfish on the market. Shellfish production by business and site is presented.

LA Munro
June 2021