Press release – UK and Scottish governments giving millions to wealthy salmon farming corporations at the expense of wild fish populations and communities
New analysis reveals millions of pounds of public money is being poured into the toxic industrial salmon farming industry.
REVEALED: UK and Scottish governments giving millions to wealthy salmon farming corporations at the expense of wild fish populations and communities
Destructive salmon farming companies are benefiting from government money despite access to billions in financing from global banks and asset managers over the past decade – new report reveals.
New data released today [12 March, 2025] reveals billions from big banks and asset managers is driving enormous growth of industrial salmon farming – making huge profits for shareholders at the expense of wild fish populations and communities around the globe.
Shockingly, the massive cash injection into the devastating industry also includes millions of pounds of public money from the UK Seafood Fund, which is managed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and from Scottish government’s Marine Fund Scotland. This is revealed in today’s new analysis from environmental charity Feedback Global and Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR).
The numbers include the UK government providing Mowi – the world’s biggest salmon farming company – with £7 million and Scottish Sea Farms (co-owned by Lerøy Seafood Group and SalMar) with £5 million through the UK Seafood Fund between 2022 and 2023 [1]. The £7 million is five times more than the amount of tax Mowi paid to the Treasury in 2022 (£1.269million)[2], while last year the company’s annual revenue was EUR5.6billion [3].
Government money Mowi received included £2 million to buy equipment to rapidly process fish, which is projected to increase throughput from 65,000 to 95,000 tonnes of fish annually [4]. Mowi also received £5 million to establish a new broodstock farm for breeding fish, which will result in 25-30 million fertilised fish eggs per year [5].
Since 2021, the Scottish government’s Marine Fund Scotland has awarded nearly £5 million (£4.8 million) to salmon farming companies including Bakkafrost subsidiary the Scottish Salmon Company, Mowi and Cooke Aquaculture [6].
Scottish government money was used by companies to increase production, including £2 million to Scottish Salmon Company for a land based recirculating aquaculture system and £105,000 to Aquascot to increase processing capacity [7].
The new figures also expose that over the last decade (January 2015- November 2024) more than $18.8 billion in credit and nearly $12 billion in investment financing has been provided by global financiers to some of the world’s largest salmon farming companies. Over the same 10-year period, salmon produced from industrial farms has soared by almost a third (from 2.3 million tonnes in 2015 to nearly 3 million tonnes in 2024) [8] – considerably outpacing the growth of global meat production.
These vast sums of money from public and private finance – revealed today in Feedback Global and GSFR’s report Fishy Finances – have played a central role in the consolidation and growth of industrial salmon farming corporations. This has rapidly transformed the way fish is produced and what is eaten in the high-income markets targeted by salmon farming companies. According to the Marine Conservation Society, farmed salmon is now the single most popular fish consumed in the UK [9]. Meanwhile, regions which provide fishmeal and fish oil to the salmon farming industry suffer from chronic food insecurity. The report cites the example of West Africa, where Norwegian salmon farming’s demand for fish oil is depriving up to 4million people of fish.
Community resistance to industrial salmon farming
More and more communities are rising up to oppose the worldwide expansion of salmon farming, many of them under the umbrella of the Global Salmon Farming Resistance (GSFR), an international alliance comprising more than 100 NGOs, activists, scientists, and individuals from 19 different countries. From Scotland, Norway, Iceland, France, Canada and the USA in the Northern Hemisphere, to Argentina, Chile and Australia in the Southern Hemisphere, salmon farming is encountering fierce resistance wherever it goes.
Salmon farming causes huge damage to the environment and natural ecosystems. It has been identified as a key threat to wild salmon populations, already imperilled by the climate crisis and poor water quality. In 2023 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified global wild Atlantic salmon populations as ‘near threatened’ and reclassified UK populations as ‘endangered’.
Mowi’s shocking track record
Mowi has a shocking track record. The new report details how in recent years it has breached environmental laws in Scotland, used banned chemicals on salmon sold to UK supermarkets as organic, been implicated in a ‘price-fixing’ scandal and seen mass mortalities at its farms. For example, last year more than a million fish died at two adjacent Mowi Scotland sites – the biggest mass die-off of farmed salmon in Scotland in a decade.
The data, commissioned from independent research organisation Profundo, shows that between January 2015 and November 2024, Mowi was the largest recipient of all credit from global financiers, receiving US$7 billion, more than one-third of the total identified credit awarded to salmon farming companies. According to Feedback Global’s calculations, this has helped boost Mowi’s production volumes by around one-fifth, from 420,000 tonnes in 2015 to 502,000 tonnes in 2024 and more than double its feed production from 282,000 tonnes to 582,000 tonnes over the same period.
Natasha Hurley, Director of Campaigns at Feedback Global, said: “It’s truly shocking that public money is being given to wealthy salmon farming corporations whose shareholders are netting big profits at the expense of wild fish populations and communities around the world. For years global financiers have helped fuel the stratospheric growth of this destructive, extractive industry while using their power and influence to push misinformation about salmon farming. This cannot go on – it’s high time to listen to local communities and stop finance to industrial salmon farming.”
Agustina Copello, from Global Salmon Farming Resistance, said: “All over the world communities are rising up to defend their waters, cultures, and livelihoods from the destruction caused by open-net salmon farming. Through the GSFR, we are uniting this resistance into a powerful global movement—not just to fight back, but to create a future where food systems truly respect nature and people.”
Rachel Mulrenan, Scotland Director at WildFish, said: “Open-net salmon farming is one of the key threats facing our iconic wild Atlantic salmon populations. From the dispersal of sea lice parasites, which can prove fatal to migrating smolts, to the impacts of escaped farmed fish on genetic fitness – the growth of open-net salmon farming in Scotland has coincided with a catastrophic decline in the wild salmon population. There is no doubt that salmon farming has been a significant contributory factor to this decline.”
Ailsa McLellan, oyster farmer and campaigner, said: “It is so difficult for communities to fight salmon farms, it’s always David versus Goliath, and the farms have literally billions of pounds at their disposal. But more and more people are waking up to the truth that the ever-increasing negatives hugely outweigh the benefits of industrial-scale salmon farming. We are a growing movement, we have a voice that is getting louder and we will continue to fight against the scourge of industrial salmon farming.”
ENDS
For more information please contact Fraser Wilson, Media Manager at Feedback, on fraser@feedbackglobal.org or 07931783084.
References
[1] gov.uk, “UK Seafood Fund: Infrastructure Scheme – Projects,” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-seafood-fund-infrastructure-scheme-projects.
[3] Mowi, “Mowi Quarterly Report Q4 2024,” 2024, https://mowi.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mowi_Q4_2024_Report.pdf
[6,7] Marine Fund Scotland: grants awarded – gov.scot
[8] Based off yearly global production of farmed Atlantic salmon worldwide, Feedback calculated production increased by 29% from 2015-2024. (Using: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1179062/global-atlantic-salmon-production/
[9] https://www.mcsuk.org/ocean-emergency/sustainable-seafood/seafood-buying-guides/spotlight-on-salmon/
About Feedback
Feedback is an environmental campaign group working for food that is good for the planet and its people. To do this it challenges power, catalyses action and empowers people to achieve positive change. For more information visit www.feedbackglobal.org.
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