Seafood Scotland hires exports expert for European sales push

Seafood Scotland, the national trade and marketing body for Scottish seafood, has recruited an experienced, bilingual export marketing professional to further develop its networks in key European markets.

French national Marie-Anne Omnes has been appointed head of trade marketing (Europe), based in Edinburgh.

She joins from the Paris office of the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service where she was a policy advisor with responsibility for developing exporting opportunities.

Previously Omnes spent almost six years with Scottish Development International, latterly as food and drink in-market specialist, also based in Paris. She has a master’s degree in business management.

Vital markets

Seafood Scotland chief executive Donna Fordyce said: “France, Italy and Spain are three vital export markets for us, with other countries also showing a great deal of interest. Marie-Anne’s in-depth knowledge of continental Europe will be invaluable to us as we continue to seek out new avenues to promote premium Scottish seafood to discerning buyers.

“Marie-Anne is already planning for events in Europe next year including a culinary school masterclass and media lunch in Paris in January.”

For the salmon sector, Omnes’ voice may bolster the reputation it has already built through Scottish Quality Salmon, a subsidiary of trade body Salmon Scotland.

Label Rouge

Scottish salmon was the first non-French product to achieve prestigious Label Rouge status, more than 30 years ago, and Scottish Quality Salmon promotes Label Rouge-standard Scottish salmon.

In April, Salmon Scotland unveiled a plan to grow the proportion of exports that qualify for the Label Rouge tag by a quarter, from 12% to 15%. In 2022, 8,900 tonnes of Label Rouge quality salmon were produced and exported.

Su Cox, chair of Quality Salmon Scotland and a director of salmon farmer Bakkafrost Scotland, said at the time: “Interest and appreciation for the quality associated with our salmon has grown significantly across European markets such as Germany, Spain, and Italy, as well as across Asia and North America.

“We believe we can now extend our Label Rouge exports to reach new highs over the coming years.”