Organic Sea Harvest fallows farms, lays off staff

Organic Sea Harvest has two farms on Skye and in August last year the company finally won approval for a third farm site at Balmaqueen, on the north coast of the island, after a long drawn out process that saw two previous planning applications rejected.

Today, however, Organic Sea Harvest said that it had had to make the difficult decision to fallow its sites while attempting to raise enough capital to develop the Balmaqueen farm.

A statement from the company said: “Organic Sea Harvest is the only new salmon farming business to have been created in Scotland for many years, an achievement that we have, and continue to, celebrate. We’ve produced fantastic quality farmed organic salmon that has been in high demand and enjoyed by people around the world.

“Despite these successes, the challenging and slow pace of the planning and regulatory system in Scotland has resulted in Organic Sea Harvest reaching the end of its financial resources. Consequently, a decision has been made to fallow both existing farms until refinancing can be agreed for the business, including for the development of a new farm near Balmaqueen.”

The statement went on: “Sadly, the fallowing of our existing sites will result in redundancies in our workforce. Our immediate focus will be on helping our people through this difficult time and, where possible, supporting them in finding alternative employment.”

Previous planning applications had been turned down on grounds that they would have an adverse effect on the visual amenity of the area.

Organic Sea Harvest said that a third farm was essential because two sites would be able to sustain continuous production.

As well as its planning issues, the company had been hit by jellyfish last year which caused a high level of mortalities.