Scottish fishermen at mercy of shadowy quota barons

SCOTTISH white fish trawlers and fish processing companies are being driven to the brink of bankruptcy by anonymous "quota barons" outside the industry who now control the rights to thousands of tonnes of fish worth millions of pounds, The Scotsman can reveal.

Industry leaders claim that a new band of quota traders, which could include hedge funds and multinational companies, are now virtually dictating the price and quantity of fish being landed at Scotland's fish markets and using their quota rights to make a fortune.

They are selling additional quota for cod to desperate skippers for up to 2,500 a tonne - ten times the cost of leasing the key species a decade ago.

Skippers claim they are now being held to ransom by the quota barons. And processors risk being driven out of business because they can no longer afford to absorb the record prices they are paying for their product.

One prominent industry executive declared: "These quota traders have created a perfect storm that is driving the industry to financial ruin."

Until recently, the vast majority of additional quota, available to skippers above the designated allocation to individual vessels, came from so-called "slipper skippers" - former vessel owners who held on to their quotas when their boats were decommissioned.

But industry leaders believe that thousands of tonnes of that additional quota has now passed into the hands of various organisations and individuals who have no vested interest in the future of Scotland's fishing industry.

Will Clark, the chairman of the Fraserburgh and Peterhead Fish Processors' Association, told The Scotsman: "We are facing mass bankruptcies and financial ruin for both the offshore and onshore sectors of the industry."

He said: "There is a new entity within the fishing industry and these are quota traders, quota managers - whatever you want to call them - but these people are simply using the quota as a commodity.

"These are interests who have bought quota with the sole purpose of renting that quota out to working fishermen - solely for profit. They could be hedge funders, big companies, whatever. Nobody in the industry seems to know who they are. But these quota barons are starving the market of quota and drip feeding it into the system to artificially increase the price for their own reward."Some skippers, trying to eke out what remains of their own vessel quotas, are simply choosing to tie up to the quayside rather than pay the inflated prices.

And the dramatic fluctuation in landings - and rocketing prices at the quayside - are also hitting processors in the Buchan ports, the heartland of Britain's white fish industry.

A veteran Buchan skipper said vessel owners were engaged in a "Mexican stand-off" with the quota barons.

They were being faced with a stark choice of either keeping their vessels in port to safeguard their remaining quotas or paying the exorbitant prices the quota traders were demanding.

Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Fisheries Secretary, said he would be willing to meet the industry representatives to discuss their concerns.

He said: "I have always insisted that only active fishermen should have access to fishing opportunities such as quota, and the existence of these traders, often called slipper skippers, simply undermines the efforts of genuine fishermen and communities.

"I am constantly looking at ways in which to ensure our fishing opportunities lie directly with our fishermen who most need them and continue to work and engage with industry on that objective."