Save our salmon, pleads chef who cooked for Queen

Local & National

Monday, November 26, 2007

By Linda McKee

Celebrity chef Richard Corrigan who cooked Glenarm salmon for the Queen's birthday last year has urged the Agriculture Minister to find funds to bail out the gourmet salmon company devastated by a huge jellyfish swarm.

The industry is still reeling in disbelief after 120,000 organic salmon were stung and asphyxiated to death by billions of small jellyfish, costing the Northern Salmon Company more than £1m.

Fisheries Minister Michelle Gildernew has been in talks with the company to come up with some form of rescue package but warned that no funds are available within her budget to bail it out. She has promised to consult with the Northern Ireland Executive.

Now top chef Richard Corrigan has urged the minister to act quickly to help the company, describing it as a model of organic fish farming that is one of the best in the world.

The Dublin-born chef cooked Glenarm salmon for the Queen as one of the highlights of her 80th birthday banquet last year after he was one of the winners of the hit TV programme, The Great British Menu.

"I was really flabbergasted. I am really saddened for them," he said.

"I thought somebody was pulling my leg when they told me. It's a fantastic product absolutely the best of the best.

"I really think you cannot allow people to get into trouble with something like this. There are enough agricultural subsidies around to warrant some money being given from the minister, that is for sure.

"This is one of the leading lights in organic fish farming. It's a good employer locally and is a growing business. There is a huge shortage of wild fish at this moment and Glenarm is leading the way as an alternative fish source," he said.

"It's up to everybody to gather round and get this sorted.

"If it disappears the market will be filled by somebody in Norway or Scotland. This needs to be put right very quickly because the markets disappear so quickly."

Fishmonger Walter Ewing, who is one of the main Belfast suppliers of restaurants sourcing the Glenarm salmon, said the entire Christmas stock has been lost to the attack.

"That was the only salmon company in Northern Ireland - the rest all comes from Scotland," he said.

"It's a really good salmon..."

Chef Nick Price of Nick's Warehouse was involved in promoting Northern Ireland's high quality produce in Washington DC earlier this year as part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland programme.

"I don't know how they are going to recover - this is like something out of a science fiction novel. This is a blow - this was quite a high-profile product as far as Northern Ireland is concerned.

"Northern Ireland is just starting down the road of quality food production.

But this would have been regarded as one of the success stories of Northern Ireland," Mr Price said.