August 19, 2022 — As one of the largest employers in Orkney and Northern Isles, Cooke Aquaculture Scotland has released an economic impact report showing that the company’s salmon farming operations are having a significant positive social impact on their employees and community viability of the remote islands. The report is titled Cooke Aquaculture Scotland and Orkney: A summary of our impacts for people and communities.
Including bonus and overtime payments during period 2020-21, a striking fact from the report notes that Cooke’s skilled, permanent jobs, are paying 24.8% more than the Orkney average and 8.6% above the average for Scotland.
- Average salary in Orkney: £28,132
- Average salary in Scotland: £32,344
- Average Cooke farm salary in Orkney: £35,112
All the company’s local investment is having real-life impacts in Orkney and Northern Isles:
- supported local businesses and jobs
- maintained local populations
- sustained the uptake of local schools, ferries, shops and cafes; and
- created ongoing operational spending with local businesses.
“When we first came to Orkney in 2014, as a family-owned company we understood immediately that the jobs we provided mattered – really mattered. They keep people and their families on the islands, attract new people to live here, and help businesses to thrive and schools to stay open,” said Joel Richardson, Vice President of Public Relations for Cooke Aquaculture Scotland. “We have never forgotten that and now we employ 122 people in Orkney, 51 of them on our farms. That includes 25 new jobs created in 2016-2021, all of them helping to keep remote communities viable.”
Orkney salmon farming sites tend to employ 4-5 people each in full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs. For the remote islands especially, a new farm can be transformational in terms of tackling local depopulation. As the only salmon farmer in Orkney to process farmed fish locally, Cooke employs over 41 people at their processing and packing facility in Kirkwall.