Chamber and committees

We are running out of time, so I ask Charles Millar to comment briefly on that.

Thank you. Our first item of business is an introductory evidence session on fisheries and aquaculture. I welcome to the meeting our panel of industry stakeholders, who join us remotely: Elaine Whyte, who is the executive secretary of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association; Elspeth Macdonald, who is the chief executive officer of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation; Tavish Scott, who is the chief executive of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation; and Jimmy Buchan, who is the chief executive officer of the Scottish Seafood Association.

Before we move to members’ questions, I invite our witnesses to make brief opening remarks. I am afraid that we have only one hour for the session, so I politely request that you keep those remarks to no more than a few minutes. The advantage of your appearing remotely is that I can turn you off at will, so please keep your remarks to a minimum.

I invite Elaine Whyte to begin, and I will then move to Elspeth, Tavish and—last but not least—Jimmy Buchan.

Thank you very much, Elaine. You have set the bar very high for the other witnesses.

Yes, as long as it is brief.

That is grand.

Thank you. I thank the witnesses for their patience with the fact that we started late and ran over time. Thank you all for your evidence. I have no doubt that we will come back to you later in the parliamentary session.

Good morning, and welcome to the fourth meeting of the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee. Before we begin, I remind all committee members who are using electronic devices to switch them to silent.

We have received apologies from Jim Fairlie. I welcome Emma Harper, who is sitting in as his substitute. I invite you to declare any relevant interests or say that you have none to declare.

Thank you very much. Finally, I call Jimmy Buchan.

Thank you very much. I very much appreciate those brief introductions, and I am sure that you will have the opportunity to add a lot more to those comments during the questioning.

I will kick off with a question about the impact of Covid-19 and EU exit on the seafood trade. We have already heard about stakeholders’ excellent engagement in the Scottish seafood exports task force, and I know that, as a result, it was able to solve issues that appeared to be very small but that had big repercussions for the industry, such as having a system that did not know the difference between monkfish cheeks and tails.

It is my understanding, Tavish, that you played a role in trying to digitise records so as to streamline the exporting system. The task force has now completed its work, and there is now a Scottish seafood industry action group. I will ask each member of the panel in turn how imports and exports are functioning nine months on. What are the on-going and unresolved issues that the new seafood industry action group is likely to have to address?

Let us start with Jimmy Buchan.

That may be one for Katie Gillham.