June 20, 2019 — Three days, that’s all it takes. That’s the maximum time needed to get salmon from the cold waters of a pristine sea loch in the far north-west of Scotland to an upmarket restaurant in Beijing, Sydney or Cape Town. Often it’s quicker than that. Salmon harvested just after midnight in Mallaig are in the main transport hub at Larkhall, just off the M74 south of Glasgow, by lunchtime that day, often arriving at Heathrow the same evening.
Sent out in the bellies of passenger aircraft, the fish can then be presented on dinner plates in New York the following day.
Salmon is Scotland’s biggest food export and in the top-three of UK food exports too.
It is, quite clearly, a hugely successful product. It is renowned globally for its quality and regularly comes top of surveys rating the best salmon in the world.
But, because it is a perishable product, the routes to market have to be swift. That is why so much effort goes into getting from the sea to the customer as quickly as possible.
That is also why the harvesting often begins at midnight. That way, the normally quiet hours of the night are utilised to transport the fish and get them to the processors by the morning.
There they will be packed in ice boxes and sent to Larkhall.