Salmon chief dismisses GM feeds
Joy, who was MD of the independent Scottish salmon producer for 15 years, compared leaving his role to having his “leg amputated”.
However, he also reflects that he is also able to look back on “a wonderful time working with extraordinary people, achieving things of which I could not have dreamed 20 years ago.”
Joy, who remains one of the company’s directors, adds that, although “it becomes harder and harder to find the big, new, bold initiatives that seemed so clear when the company first started” there are still a number of areas with room for improvement – especially sea lice control and feed.
“The control of sea lice is an obvious area to start and we are trialling new concepts and new ideas. It is fantastic to see so many of these ideas being generated on the farm, exactly where they should be. Our people are going to see other farms and learning from them whilst extrapolating the ideas and developing ideas generated on farm. For someone who worked at sea and learned all he knows at sea, this is all I could ever have hoped for,” he muses.
As far as feed is concerned, although he admits that the industry faces stiff competition from "China’s uptake for pigs and poultry”, he asserts that “if ever a policy starts in Loch Duart that we should use a high vegetable content or use some form of GM, I will be a long way away.”
