Organic salmon certifier considers next step after tribunal ruling
Soil Association subsidiary insists on uses 'right reporting channels' for inspections of farms
An organisation that assesses whether farmed salmon can use the Soil Association’s “organic” label has said it is considering its next steps after a legal ruling that it must make inspection reports public.
Soil Association Certification, a subsidiary of the Soil Association, had appealed the order by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) but the ruling has now been upheld by the General Regluatory Tribunal, part of the UK courts system.
The ICO made the ruling after angling pressure group Wildfish, which opposes salmon farming, requested to see organic fish farm inspection reports in 2024, and was told by Soil Association Certification that it should ask the UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) for them.
Wildfish turned to the ICO after discovering that Defra only provided summaries of the reports.
Open to scrutiny
“This case … was about a simple principle: if environmental claims are being made to consumers, they must be open to scrutiny,” Wildfish’s Scotland director, Nick Underdown, wrote on the pressure group’s website this week.
“Inspection reports go to the heart of whether organic standards are being met in practice, how non-compliance is handled, and whether certification is delivering what people think it means.”
He added: “We now await full disclosure of the inspection records originally requested in 2024. Our team will analyse these details carefully and share what they reveal.”
The right channels
In response to the tribunal decision, Soil Association Certification chief executive Dominic Robinson said the organisation had never sought to withhold information, “as has been wrongfully suggested by some”.
“It is the right reporting channels for the information, not the reporting of the information itself, that is in question and that we seek to ensure is clearly set out,” continued Robinson.
“Our position has been throughout that we are contracted to provide the information to Defra and they determine the appropriate release of information. The information that Wildfish has requested therefore could be requested via Defra. We are now considering the points raised by the tribunal and our next steps.”
Sector 'is indefensible'
In his article on the Wildfish website, Underdown argues that organic certification of open-net salmon farming is “simply not credible”.
“Certification cannot fix a production model that releases pollution, parasites and disease directly into the marine environment, endangering the survival of wild fish populations,” he claims.
“Transparency is a minimum requirement. But transparency alone cannot make the indefensible defensible.”
Underdown also writes that the tribunal described Soil Association Certification’s role as akin to a licensing function, thus providing a gateway to the lawful marketing of organic products.
'Can't shop around'
His interpretation of the ruling is that “companies cannot simply ‘shop around’ for a more permissive certifier, and certification decisions have real legal and commercial consequences”.
And he is encouraging Wildfish’s supporters to take part in a Soil Association consultation about tighter rules for organic salmon farms. The Soil Asociation has previously warned that it could end its certification scheme if it doesn’t see improvements in fish survival and welfare, and an end to the use of the lice treatment deltamethrin.
Wildfish believes that ending the Soil Association certification scheme would deny the salmon sector the opportunity to use an organic label.
Baseline law
But this scenario is challenged by the Soil Association.
“Our current public consultation is seeking views on proposed changes to the Soil Association’s own higher standards for organic, which go above and beyond the baseline organic law,” said the charity.
“It would be possible for salmon to be available as organic even if we were to withdraw Soil Association’s standards. Our consultation seeks to raise the bar on standards. Wildfish are incorrect in their assertion that the public consultation will shape whether salmon continues to be marketed as organic.”
Only two salmon farmers, Mowi and Cooke, produce organic salmon in Scotland. Mowi produced around 5,500 gutted weight tonnes in 2024, and Cooke is understood to have produced 6-7,000 gwt.
No evidence for claims
A spokesperson for trade body Salmon Scotland, which represents producers, said: “Scotland’s salmon farmers meet some of the highest international welfare and environmental standards, underpinned by independent certification including organic, and members will continue to engage constructively with the Soil Association.
“Wildfish presents itself as a conservation organisation but is, in reality, an angling pressure group that campaigns to end salmon farming and persistently misrepresents the sector with claims that are not supported by the evidence.”
