Loch Duart and BioMar set up community fund

Independent salmon farmer Loch Duart has announced the first projects supported by the new community fund it has set up with feed giant BioMar.

The Loch Duart and BioMar Community Fund has already helped a range of projects including schools initiatives and local sports clubs. The fund focuses on the communities local to Loch Duart’s operations – the islands of North and South Uist, in the Hebrides, and Sutherland in the north of Scotland.

Supported initiatives so far include £2,000 for staff well-being days at Durness Primary staffroom, Kinlochbervie Primary, Scourie Primary and Kinlochbervie High School, and the Goblin racing car building project for schools in north west Scotland, in which pupils built an electric go kart.

Rebecca MacInnes, Loch Duart HR Manager, and Community Fund administrator, said: “It’s an honour to announce some of the successful projects which have become the first recipients of the new Loch Duart and BioMar Community Fund. With a focus on supporting schools and health and wellbeing, we are ensuring that the funding goes to groups who really need this extra bit of money to carry on their important work.

“Whether it’s giving school environments a much needed makeover for both pupils and teachers, or wellbeing hampers and events being created for staff to give them a boost, it shows that a little bit of help can do a whole lot of good. We’re looking forward to sharing more news about the projects we’re supporting across Sutherland the Uists.”

Mike McLeish from BioMar, partners with Loch Duart behind the Community Fund, commented: “BioMar is delighted to supply high-quality, nutritionally balanced, sustainable salmon feed to Loch Duart’s farming operations in the Scottish Northwest and Hebrides. As part of this relationship, we have partnered to set up the Community Fund to ensure that the communities around Loch Duart’s farming sites have access to funding aimed at improving people’s lives through a range of amazing projects. We look forward to seeing how these brilliant communities use our funding to transform the Uists and Sutherland.”

BioMar provides a bespoke feed for Loch Duart, which seeks to replicate a wild fish’s diet as closely as possible with a high proportion of “increasingly sustainable” marine ingredients.

The Goblin electric go kart