Britain’s Food Champion of the Year is Argyll’s Gigha Halibut

Alistair Barge, owner of his family’s fish farm , Scotland’s only halibut farm, Gigha Halibut was named yesterday as Britain’s Food Champion of the Year.

Sponsored by Country Living and Waitrose, the awards ai to recognise those growing the ‘heritage foods of tomorrow’.

Alongside the title came a cheque for £10,000 and – not an automatic part of the award but a confirmation of how good his product is – he also landed a contract to supply 75 Waitrose stores nationwide. Glasgow is bringing Waitrose to the west of Scotland, with a new store opening in November. Until then the only two Waitrose outlets north of the border are in the well-heeled Edinburgh suburbs of Morningside and Comely Bank.

The new Glasgow store is to be added to the portfolio of Waitrose stories Gigha Halibut will supply. The entire contract will increase the halibut farm’s production by half a tonne a week. This amounts to 250 fish so with the farm currently producing 1,100 a week, the Waitrose contract will add not far short of 25% a week to its output.

The fish will only be available on Waitrose’s fish counters on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays because there is only a single weekly delivery from the island. Mr Barge, steady footed, understands the power of quality supply to dictate its own market.

Halibut are difficult to farm and take four years to mature so Gigha Halibut, running since the 19902s, is a skilled and knowledgeable operation. Alistair Barge has no intention of being lured into a different form of operation and is content to remain a specialist craft producer.

Argyll’s food and drink products are among the best in Scotland and the country’s Food and Drink industry is becoming very well regarded internationally.

An energetic supporter of the industry is Highlands and Islands MSP, Dave Thompson who recently hosted a reception for it at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood as part of Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight.

This event showcased 8 major Scottish food producers:

• Walkers Shortbread
• Connage Highland Dairy
• Taste of Arran
• The Highland Chocolatier
• Summer Harvest Oils
• Glenlyon Gourmet
• Graham’s the Family Dairy
• Angus Soft Fruits

It also discussed the strategy of growing the industry from £7.5 billion to £10 billion by 2017. Speakers including the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead and the Managing Director of Peckhams, Tony Johnston.

Speaking of the event, Dave Thomson said: ‘The producers within our land of food and drink demonstrate innovation, quality and dedication every day, giving Scotland its acclaimed international reputation.  I was pleased to commend this in a motion to Parliament, also praising the efforts of the Scottish Government to increase the reach of Protected Food Name (PFN) status for more iconic Scottish dishes including Stornoway Black Pudding and Traditional Ayrshire Dunlop Cheese, among others.

‘By volume and value, Scotland has some of the largest PFNs in the EU, with high value products such as Scotch Beef and Scottish Farmed Salmon accounting for around £700 million in sales.   That is why the Scottish Food & Drink fortnight is so critical in furthering the representation and celebration of these amazing foods and driving forward sustainable economic growth across the industry for the benefit of the whole of Scotland’.

All we can say on this is that, alongisde his laudable efforts, Mr Thompson is in need of information about and an introduction to Argyll’s portfolio of first class food products. He could be a powerful ambassador.

In terms of PFNs, it’s worth noting that, prompted by Diageo’s profit-maximising manoeuvres in quietly maturing Skye’s Talisker and Islay’s Lagavulin off the islands and in central Scotland, For Argyll has reported on the PFN initiative and recommended it be applied without delay to Scotland’s whiskies – to ensure that production from start to finish never moves from the branded place of origin.

The photograph above shows, from left to right, Dave Thomson MSP; Tony Johnston, MD of Peckhams; Richard Lochhead, Cabinet Secretarty for Rural Affairs; Mark Barker, Executive Chef of Sodexo; and Paul McLaughlin, Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink