Yes, certainly. As I said in my first comments, there is the potential to double the raw material that the catching sector in Scotland can catch. As has been discussed around the table this morning, clearly there is a huge amount of detail to work out on how that opportunity is achieved and determined and shared within Scotland. There is a long way to go with this. It has been very important for the federation to continue to make the case for why there are opportunities for the industry in leaving the CFP. At the moment, 60 per cent of the fish that are caught in UK waters are not caught by the UK fleet, whereas the UK fleet catches only 11 per cent of its fish in other EU waters. There is therefore a significant imbalance to redress and that presents opportunities for the Scottish catching fleet, the processing industry and communities.
I do not discount the amount of debate and discussion and detail that still has to be gone through on how that opportunity is achieved and determined, but we should not lose sight of that significant opportunity, that significant prize of, as Jimmy Buchan said, being able to catch more of this great Scottish seafood, for which we have markets around the world. I saw that programme on Monday night and it was fascinating to see how that seafood trade works.
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It is also important to remember that those markets want our fish. There are 5,000 people employed in Boulogne-sur-Mer who depend on Scottish seafood imports into France. They have been on various visits to Scotland in recent months, understanding where we are coming from and helping us to understand their perspective.
The federation has been focusing on continuing to make the case for why this matters and why there is a huge opportunity here, but there needs to be a lot more work to determine in detail how that happens. That is where things such as the Scottish Government’s “Future of Fisheries Management: National Discussion Paper”, are very helpful. That sets out some of the ideas and the thinking around how we will manage fisheries in Scotland in future. Also there are UK Government interactions in this, because the UK Government is very much in the frame on the international negotiation side.
There is a lot to be done, but there is a lot to be achieved. There is a huge amount of focus at the moment on managing the consequences of a no-deal exit. A lot of that effort is around how we deal with the processing side, but we have to move into the discussions about how we achieve benefits for the longer term.