Fish Go To Thailand And Back As Scots Jobs Axed

[guardian]

Fish?

[Jai Dee]

Youngs hits back in Thai scampi row

YOUNG'S has hit back in the intensifying row over its controversial decision to switch some langoustine processing activities from Scotland to Thailand, which is costing around 120 jobs in Annan, Dumfries.

The decision to move its de-shelling operation to the Far East has been fiercely criticised by 'green' groups, such as Friends of the Earth, which claims the plan is environmentally unfriendly and significantly adding to the food miles problem.

Duncan McLaren, Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, described it last week as "environmental madness" of modern globalisation. He said the scampi will undergo an almost 17,000-mile round trip before it even arrives at the supermarket distribution depot.

But Grimsby based Young's said the relatively modest volume of langoustine will be sent by sea and not by air, as some of the company's critics have claimed.

A statement declared: "The twice monthly shipments will be by standard container vessel, which has the least environmental impact.

"We will not commission special transport, but will use scheduled shipping lines that carry goods between the Far East and the UK on a regular basis. And we will only use shipping that can demonstrate full compliance with EU legislation regarding energy efficiency and CO2 emissions.

"The total volume of scampi will be between 400 and 600 tonnes a year - or just two TEU containers a month. This compares to a total traffic between the EU and Asia of 14 million containers a year.

Young's said the total carbon emissions generated by this extra langoustine traffic would be just 200 tonnes a year, not thousands of tonnes that had been claimed in some of the media."

The statement continues: "It is necessary to mature our langoustine tails for three weeks in freezer storage before peeling and processing into scampi. At present this happens in cold storage in the UK, in future it will happen during transport to Thailand. We believe that the carbon emissions of the transport will be roughly the same as that produced by maturing scampi in freezers in the UK.

"Peeling in the UK also requires us to dispose of the waste shells by incineration, for health and safety purposes. In the Far East, as an alternative to disposal, we can sell the langoustine shells either for the production of fish feed, or for extraction of a natural substance called chitin, used in that region for traditional medicines. This again reduces the amount of carbon – by eliminating the need for incineration

The company has repeated its pledge to retain a healthy Scottish langoustine industry with continued investment and innovation. "Langoustine is a most important fishery by value with landings worth £200-million a year," they stressed. "It is a well managed and sustainable fishery with healthy stocks, so much so that the quota was increased by 30 per cent last year."

The industry employed over 9,000 people in Scotland both on land and at sea and the vast majority of fish landed went into exports, mainly Europe.

"We are investing heavily in the future of Scottish langoustine and also investing in the Clyde to help it go for a Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) accreditation, which would be a further boost to this sector." Young's also pointed out that Scottish fishermen were now receiving 50 per cent more for their langoustine catches than this time last year.

Source: FishUpdate.com - 21 November 2006

[manjara]

Youngs hits back in Thai scampi row

YOUNG'S has hit back in the intensifying row over its controversial decision to switch some langoustine processing activities from Scotland to Thailand, which is costing around 120 jobs in Annan, Dumfries.

....

"We will not commission special transport, but will use scheduled shipping lines that carry goods between the Far East and the UK on a regular basis. And we will only use shipping that can demonstrate full compliance with EU legislation regarding energy efficiency and CO2 emissions.

...

The statement continues: "It is necessary to mature our langoustine tails for three weeks in freezer storage before peeling and processing into scampi. At present this happens in cold storage in the UK, in future it will happen during transport to Thailand. We believe that the carbon emissions of the transport will be roughly the same as that produced by maturing scampi in freezers in the UK.

.....

Source: FishUpdate.com - 21 November 2006

Good statement by Youngs! If they actually did assess the environmental impact as it seems then the environmentalists look a bit stupid. E.g. if it's true the scampi are 'aged' in refridgerators in the UK for the same period of time it takes them to get to Thailand, then there's only the transportation emissions to consider, which could be offset by the incineration requirement for the shells.

[chownah]

Right! the shells will be used for traditional medicine! I'm sure there is a need for more shrimp shells for traditional medicine in SE Asia and we are all so grateful for the Scots humanitarian gesture in helping to provide for this great need.

Chownah

Edited November 24, 2006 by chownah

[Thaddeus]

Scampi ... spilt the syllables ...... year of the scam