Fish Vet Group

Our region is home to most of Scotland's aquaculture

Most of Scotland’s aquaculture takes place in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, where the pure, clean waters provide the ideal conditions for fin fish, shellfish and seaweed to thrive.

Fish Vet Group provides services right across the aquaculture value chain, from producers and processors to retailors. It offers veterinary services, diagnostic technologies, environmental monitoring and training, with operations around the world, including Norway, Ireland, Chile, Brazil and North AmericaThe company is part of the Benchmark group, an international biotechnology company working across the production lifecycle to provide producers with products and services that tackle disease and environmental challenges, increase efficiencies and improve product quality.

“We started out as an aquaculture veterinary practice, and that core activity still sits at the heart of what we do,” says Matthews. “Over the years we’ve continued to provide frontline, proactive support to aquaculture producers, helping the industry to grow. We’ve gradually added more strings to our bow, and are now a multidisciplinary company able to support the sector from concept to production.

“We provide a wide range of services – from primary veterinary services and health consultancy to laboratory diagnostics. We also have an environmental team, which carries out sediment health checks, lab analysis, freshwater and shellfish surveys and statutory surveys. And our training arm provides a mix of practical, online and classroom-based training in aquaculture and welfare.

“Highlands and Islands Enterprise has been a tremendous help over the years, particularly in the early days,” Matthews explains. “For example, they helped us secure funding for fairly critical new bits of kit, including a digital slide scanner which was quite revolutionary. This really helped us as we diversified and grew.”